by
Greek Giant
The Giants travel to Cleveland to play the Guardians for three games beginning tonight. I have watched a few Guardians games this year and last and I like the way they play baseball. They have a talented starting pitching staff. Just look at those ERAs!. The main issue for Cleveland is scoring runs. It explains their pedestrian record of 60-65 which puts them five games behind the division-leading White Sox in the American League Central. The Guardians are 28th in runs scored in the Major Leagues with 494 thus far this season. To put that into perspective, the Giants are better at 24th with 509 runs. Cleveland’s pitching staff is eighth in baseball with a team ERA of 3.85. It’s impressive.
The top Guardians performers at the plate are Chase DeLauter and Brayan Rocchio. They have 57 and 51 RBIs respectively. DeLauter is a rookie with big-time talent. The Guardians have trouble hitting long balls. Their leaders have 13 home runs thus far in the season and as a team they are ranked 28th with only 119 round-trippers. It explains a great deal about their run production. Remember too that Patrick Bailey is now a Guardian and is getting regular playing time.
The Pitching Matchups
Tonight’s Game
All times listed are for Cleveland time.
Whisenhunt (3-3, 6.11 ERA) versus Griffin (13-4, 3.25 ERA) at 6:45 PM
Tomorrow’s Game
TBD versus Messick (9-7, 2.59 ERA)
Thursday’s Game
Roupp (7-10, 4.31 ERA) versus Williams (11-7, 2.74 ERA) at 1:10 PM
Giants Promote Williams
It was just announced that the Giants have promoted left-hander Matt Wilkinson from Triple-A Sacramento for their upcoming series against the Guardians this week, a source confirmed to MLB.com on Monday. The club has not confirmed the news.
Wilkinson, 23, was acquired from the Guardians in exchange for catcher Patrick Bailey in May and could have a chance to make his Major League debut against his former organization, creating an interesting subplot for the Interleague clash at Progressive Field.
Wilkinson is known for his “Invisiball” fastball, which averaged just 89.9 mph and topped out at 92.2 mph at Sacramento. While Wilkinson doesn’t light up the radar gun, he creates deception with his low release point, allowing him to hold Triple-A hitters to a .172 average with his four-seam fastball this season. In other words, he is a pitcher and not a “thrower” like most so-called pitchers today.
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