A lot of things have gone awry for the Cleveland Guardians so far this season, as the team has gotten off to a mediocre 38-37 start thanks to a lifeless offense and a bullpen that is still showing signs of being overworked from last season.
One player who hasn’t shown any signs of decline or being overworked is late-inning reliever Cade Smith, who has a 2.41 ERA through 35 appearances after his dominant rookie campaign last year, when he posted a 1.91 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 75.1 innings.
Tim Stebbins of MLB.com recently wrote an article about how Smith is among the best in the league at keeping the ball in the yard, also adding that he is in “unprecedented territory” at this point in his career.
“[Cade Smith] has yielded just one homer over his first 109 career innings (to Seattle’s Dylan Moore on June 18 last year), placing him near some unprecedented territory,” Stebbins wrote. “According to Elias, among pitchers who made their big league debut over the past 50 seasons (since 1976), Smith has thrown the third-most innings before allowing a second regular-season homer. Atlanta’s Jonny Venters tossed 133 2/3 innings before allowing his second, on June 29, 2011. Houston’s Dave Smith went 123 1/3 innings before yielding his second, on May 8, 1981.”
Smith just passed his one-year anniversary of his only regular-season home run ever surrendered, though he did give up a bomb to Giancarlo Stanton in Game 4 of the ALCS last year.
Smith’s consistency has been a huge reason why this season hasn’t gone off the rails, as other relievers like Emmanuel Clase, Tim Herrin, and Paul Sewald have had their fair share of hiccups this year.
The 26-year-old now has 155 career strikeouts in just 109 innings, and fans are hoping the dominance continues because he has been indispensable to this team’s success since his debut.
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