Three Positives From the Week of May 25th
Another down week for the Guards still had plenty of positive moments.
As we enter the month of June, there are plenty of reasons to be happy with this Cleveland Guardians team. Holding the second-place spot in the division is just one of them.
It’s Fryday Again
The Guardians announced multiple roster moves on Saturday that included the not-so-positive placement of Lane Thomas back on the 10-day IL. However, in another move, they announced the return of DH/IF David Fry. On February 19th, Fry was placed on the 60-day IL for right elbow reconstruction surgery. He began making rehab appearances for the ACL Guardians, the Akron RubberDucks, and the Columbus Clippers two weeks ago. After the team announced his return on Saturday, he was not in the batter’s box until he pinch hit in Sunday afternoon’s series finale. While he has just one at bat with zero hits and zero walks on the year, he’s certainly going to be a welcome addition to the lineup during such an integral part of the season. If he can be as clutch as he was in last year’s ALDS game three, we’re in good shape.
Bieber Begins Rehab
On the last day of May - the day that is also his birthday - Shane Bieber made his first rehab appearance since he was placed on the 60-day IL at the beginning of the season for UCL reconstruction. He appeared in a game for the ACL Guardians and went 2 ⅓ scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit and struck out an astonishing five hitters in what was his first professional pitching appearance in two months. While there’s no official timeline for his return to the big league team, this is absolutely a good sign. He seems to be back to the old Shane Bieber (from this extremely small sample size), like we saw in his first and only start this season.
Martínez Saves the Day
Going into Wednesday’s season finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the mood was definitely low. The team had just dropped the first two games on top of losing the last game of the prior series against the Detroit Tigers. That mood quickly changed in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s game. Nolan Jones got the moment started when he drove in two runs with a single, tying the game. With two runners on base, Angel Martínez stepped up to the plate and completely flipped the switch. He took two balls and then launched a ball 394 feet into left center field to put the Guards on top 7-4. Emmanuel Clase then came into the game in the ninth inning and secured his 11th save on the year. Hopefully this is just the beginning of what’s to come for Martínez.