CINCINNATI — The Atlanta Braves are on pace to set the single-season team home run record. The New York Yankees are on pace to finish last in the American League East for the first time since 1990. Shohei Ohtani has a 1.073 OPS and has held the opposition to a .621 OPS.
Ah, but here’s one stat sure to bend your brain into a pretzel: The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen ranks sixth in the league in ERA (and they’re a whisker or two from ranking second). You don’t need a degree from optometry school to know the eye test does not align with that stat.
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It’s become some paradoxical blend of unfathomable and easily predictable. Every late-inning meltdown seems like the most dramatic and devastating you’ve ever seen … until the next one.
No one has been immune. Every reliever has been responsible for an ill-timed blow-up. But you wouldn’t know just by scouting the surface-level statistics.
Emmanuel Clase, Trevor Stephan, Enyel De Los Santos, Eli Morgan and Nick Sandlin each have an ERA ranging from 2.92 to 3.65. They all have healthy walk and strikeout rates. Even James Karinchak’s 3.90 ERA, before he was booted to Triple-A Columbus, doesn’t sound an alarm. Certainly, there’s more to any reliever’s story than his ERA, but on an individual basis, not one of Cleveland’s main relievers is having a disastrous season.
The Guardians rank third in the league with 23 blown saves, only one behind the co-leaders, a couple of other disappointing teams in the Cardinals and White Sox. There are plenty of culprits for the Guardians’ lackluster record, but an unreliable bullpen can surely sink a season.
- Cleveland’s record in games tied after six innings: 5-12
- Cleveland’s record in games tied after seven innings: 5-12
- Cleveland’s record in games tied after eight innings: 3-9
Maybe you’ve reached the point where you watch ninth innings expecting the worst. Maybe you sit in awe as it unravels. Maybe since it’s mid-August and the meltdowns haven’t ceased, you can’t do anything but laugh. Maybe you’re a masochist.
In any event, to really grasp how profoundly unreliable Cleveland’s bullpen has been, let’s revisit each late-inning catastrophe. These are only the losses; there have been instances in which the bullpen has fumbled away a lead — Clase at Wrigley Field, for example — but the Guardians have still emerged triumphant. Not all of these are strictly the relievers’ fault; offensive ineptitude, especially the first couple of months of the season, had the team playing in an unhealthy number of close games.
Don’t blame us, blame the offense
March 30: Mariners 3, Guardians 0
Karinchak wilted in his first trial with the pitch clock in a game that mattered. Seattle fans counted down with the clock and he served up a three-run bomb to Ty France to break a scoreless tie.
Perhaps it gets an extra bump for being Opening Day, but it was March, this hadn’t become a trend yet and the Guardians offered zero indication they planned to plate a run that evening.
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May 27: Cardinals 2, Guardians 1
Brendan Donovan raced home from third on a David Fry passed ball in the 10th (with former Cleveland outfielder Oscar Mercado at the plate) and the Guardians failed to cash in the free baserunner in the bottom of the frame.
This was a fitting ending for a game between two of the more disappointing teams in the league. Tanner Bibee and Jack Flaherty engaged in a pitcher’s duel. Karinchak walked all three batters he faced before Sam Hentges cleaned up his mess.
June 2: Twins 1, Guardians 0
Aaron Civale and Bailey Ober traded scoreless innings, but Jorge Polanco supplied a two-out RBI double in the seventh off Sandlin for the game’s only run.
With the win, the Twins took the first two — each by one, late-inning run — of a four-game set at Target Field.
Chas McCormick rounds the bases after hitting a home run off Nick Sandlin. (Thomas Shea / USA Today)Aug. 2: Astros 3, Guardians 2
Chas McCormick’s second homer of the game, off Sandlin in the sixth inning, was the decisive hit. This was more about Cleveland’s offense failing to muster much of anything on a Houston bullpen day.
The Astros completed the sweep of the reeling Guardians, who were fresh off being no-hit the night before and being upset about a series of trade-deadline maneuvers.
Aug. 7: Blue Jays 3, Guardians 1
Cavan Biggio broke a scoreless tie in the eighth with a two-run homer to right-center off De Los Santos.
Gavin Williams held Toronto scoreless on one hit (with 12 strikeouts) over seven innings — becoming the first Cleveland rookie ever with a start with those stats — but the Guardians couldn’t touch Hyun Jin Ryu and six Blue Jays relievers.
Tough loss, but stuff happens
April 4: Athletics 4, Guardians 3
Karinchak allowed a walk-off single to Tony Kemp to snap Cleveland’s four-game winning streak.
Little did we know the A’s would be historically bad. Kemp has a .602 OPS this season, so letting him deliver with the game on the line is doubly rough.
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April 18: Tigers 4, Guardians 3
Kerry Carpenter slugged a walk-off homer with two outs in the ninth on the ninth pitch off his at-bat against Karinchak.
This was the first tilt in a doubleheader at Comerica Park. The Tigers won the second game, 1-0.
April 29: Red Sox 8, Guardians 7
The Guardians pushed the game to extra innings and scored in the 10th on a Mike Zunino single (remember him?). Ah, but Zunino’s passed ball, sandwiched by a couple of Boston singles off Clase, fueled a Red Sox win.
That hit, by the way, was Zunino’s last for 22 days. This was no egregious outing for Clase, but it does offer a reminder that he’s simply been more hittable this season (8.6 hits allowed per nine innings vs. 5.3 per nine last year).
Their faces kind of say it all, don’t they? (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)May 2: Yankees 4, Guardians 2
Karinchak immediately coughed up Cleveland’s one-run lead in the sixth, and then served up a go-ahead homer to Willie Calhoun in the seventh.
Tanner Bibee, in his second big-league start, out-pitched Gerrit Cole at Yankee Stadium, but one team’s bullpen shut down the other team’s offense. Karinchak sure was in the middle of a lot of early-season messes.
May 12: Angels 5, Guardians 4
The Angels scored twice off Clase in the top of the ninth, and it was a prototypical 2023 Clase outing. Nothing alarming or egregious, just the opponent capitalizing on every tiny miscue.
A Mike Trout double? Understandable. An Anthony Rendon single? Sure. But the Angels tied the game on a bouncer to second baseman Andrés Giménez, who made a poor throw to the plate. The Angels had started the runner at first, so instead of initiating a game-ending double play, Giménez came home and they retired nobody. A sacrifice fly would win it for L.A.
June 6: Red Sox 5, Guardians 4
De Los Santos faced four batters in the top of the eighth and they all reached … and all ultimately scored.
This was De Los Santos’ first trial as Clase’s setup man, and it was the first night he just didn’t have it. Sandlin relieved him with the bases loaded and no outs and allowed a pair of RBI singles.
July 14: Rangers 12, Guardians 4
Morgan, Hentges, De Los Santos and Cody Morris combined to allow 10 runs over 2 1/3 innings, turning a 4-0 Cleveland lead into a lopsided loss to kick off the second half.
Civale exited after five innings and 79 pitches, as both he and manager Terry Francona noted he was a bit fatigued. The bullpen was well-rested after the All-Star break, but so were the Rangers’ bats.
July 23: Phillies 8, Guardians 5
David Fry slugged a two-out homer in the ninth to send the game to extra innings, but the Phillies tagged Stephan and Tim Herrin for four runs in the 10th.
Xzavion Curry started a bullpen game for the Guardians, who used seven relievers for one inning apiece. Those relievers allowed seven runs, erasing the club’s 3-1 lead.
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July 31: Astros 7, Guardians 3
Cleveland carried a 2-0 lead into the sixth, but Morgan surrendered a three-run bomb to Yordan Alvarez and the Astros didn’t look back.
Morgan before the All-Star break: 1.89 ERA. Morgan in 10 appearances after the All-Star break: 9.31 ERA, with an opponent on-base percentage of .463.
That’s a gut punch
April 12: Yankees 4, Guardians 3
Franchy Cordero homered off Stephan to tie the game in the seventh and the Yankees scratched across the winning run against Clase in the ninth.
Giancarlo Stanton, he of the fourth-percentile sprint speed, reached on an infield single to deep shortstop, and Amed Rosario’s errant throw advanced Stanton to second. A pinch runner scored on Oswaldo Cabrera’s two-out single.
April 16: Nationals 7, Guardians 6
Cleveland’s 6-3 lead disappeared rather quickly, as Herrin allowed a two-run homer to Luis García in the seventh and Sandlin and Stephan joined forces to hand over the lead in the eighth.
Clase and Karinchak were unavailable as the Guardians attempted to complete a sweep. Washington scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly, as Zunino was charged with blocking the plate.
May 3: Yankees 4, Guardians 3
Clase allowed a couple of ninth-inning singles to Anthony Rizzo and Willie Calhoun to erase Cleveland’s 3-2 lead, and Stephan served up a walk-off single to Jose Trevino in the 10th.
All three games in the series in the Bronx were decided in the late innings. The Guardians were fortunate to claim the series opener, but they were kicking themselves after dropping the final two games.
May 21: Mets 5, Guardians 4
A couple of minutes after the Guardians dropped a four-spot on the Mets in the top of the eighth, Starling Marte tagged Stephan for a decisive two-run blast in the bottom of the inning.
On the heels of an epic meltdown the previous game, the Guardians’ bullpen struck again. This was the first game of a doubleheader, and between games, the clubhouse was quieter than a school library during the summer.
June 25: Brewers 5, Guardians 4
Look, it’s no easy task to prevent the automatic runner from scoring in extra innings, but it’s the who, not the what in this instance, as Owen Miller delivered the game-winning RBI double off Stephan.
It was the second RBI double of the afternoon for Miller, who has since been optioned to Triple A. It also made Milwaukee a series winner and cost the Guardians a really nice week after sweeping Oakland.
Trevor Stephan walks off the field after a not-great eighth inning in Arlington. (Tim Heitman / Getty Images)July 16: Rangers 6, Guardians 5
With one out in the eighth, the Rangers went walk, walk, single, double, single against Stephan to flip a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 advantage.
The Guardians entered the All-Star break with some momentum, as they had clawed back to the .500 mark and sat in first in the AL Central. Then, the Rangers hit them like a Mack truck. This completed a sweep.
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Aug. 6: White Sox 5, Guardians 3
This was a Clase BABIP-from-Hell special. The White Sox went infield single, single, strikeout, strikeout, infield single, reached on error, single up the middle to record a three-spot in the ninth.
I’ve lightheartedly suggested to some people in recent weeks that they should play the infield halfway to home plate when Clase pitches because he induces so many slow choppers that runners beat out. This was the day after José Ramírez knocked out Tim Anderson, and this time, the Guardians were left reeling.
Aug. 11: Rays 9, Guardians 8
This game was so bizarre on both sides, it’s difficult to determine whether the Guardians had any business winning. Sandlin surrendered a leadoff homer in the ninth to Wander Franco.
The teams kept relinquishing the lead until the Rays went ahead by four. Then, Myles Straw homered for the first time in two years. And if that wasn’t strange enough, Cleveland plated three runs in the ninth without putting the ball in play. Just your typical BB-BB-HBP-K-WP-K-WP-BB-WP-K inning. And then Franco crushed Sandlin’s third pitch. Life comes at you fast.
How … just how
May 19: Mets 10, Guardians 9
Cleveland coughed up leads of 5-0 in the fifth, 7-3 in the seventh and 9-7 in the 10th, with Francisco Lindor delivering a walk-off single against Clase at Citi Field in his first game against his former team.
This game had everything — everything a Cleveland fan probably wants to forget. Pete Alonso tied the game with a grand slam off Karinchak in the seventh. After Gabriel Arias provided the Guardians the lead with a 10th-inning blast, Clase allowed three consecutive two-out singles, the first two coming on 0-2 counts.
June 1: Twins 7, Guardians 6
Cleveland staked Stephan to a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth, but four batters into the frame, the Twins had tied it, thanks to a Donovan Solano RBI double and a Royce Lewis two-run shot. Minnesota won it in the ninth against Morgan.
The Guardians were hoping this series against the team they were chasing would jump-start them. They took the lead in the sixth with a five-run inning straight out of the 2022 Bloop Troop playbook. And then they collapsed in the eighth and ninth.
June 29: Royals 4, Guardians 3
Freddy Fermin struck a pinch-hit, two-run double off Clase in the bottom of the 10th to prevent Cleveland from a sweep at Kauffman Stadium.
How did the Guardians grab the lead in the top of the 10th, you ask? Ramírez stole home. You can’t let that be a footnote in a loss. But the Guardians did.
July 19: Pirates 7, Guardians 5
The Guardians handed Hentges a 4-2 lead and, in the span of — OK, it was a brutally long half-inning, as the Pirates scored five runs in the seventh to stave off a Cleveland sweep attempt.
Hentges wasn’t helped by his defense as Rosario misplayed consecutive balls hit his direction. The second still resulted in an out, but his throw pulled Andrés Giménez in a direction that made it too difficult to turn an inning-ending double play. After a lengthy delay to overturn the call and continue the inning, the Pirates went walk, single, walk, single and the Guardians went on a quiet bus ride back to Cleveland.
Aug. 12: Rays 6, Guardians 5
Morgan and Stephan each allowed a run, but the Guardians took a 5-3 lead into the ninth. Josh Lowe singled and, because he was running on the pitch, advanced to second on a groundout. Yandy Díaz doubled him home. After Franco struck out, Díaz moved to third on a wild pitch and then scored on an infield single by Brandon Lowe, who stole second and scored on a Randy Arozarena single.
It was the second straight walk-off win for the Rays against the Guardians, the sort that just leaves you speechless. Clase topped out at 102.8 mph and eclipsed 102 mph four times, but he blew his ninth save, as many as he blew the previous two years combined.
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Saves converted in 2021: 24 of 29
Saves converted in 2022: 42 of 46
Saves converted in 2023: 31 of 40
(Top photo of Emmanuel Clase after making a throwing error Aug. 6: Ron Schwane / Getty Images)
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