The Cleveland Guardians may have lost to the Minnesota Twins, but it wasn’t all bad.
At least they got a strong outing from Joey Cantillo, who looked poised for a nightmare performance and managed to weather the storm.
Cantillo was out there for 5.2 innings, allowing six hits, four earned runs, and two walks with nine strikeouts.
As pointed out by Tim Stebbins on X, it was a season-best for him in terms of strikeouts and innings.
Joey Cantillo goes 5 2/3 IP, 6 H, 4 R/4 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
Season high in innings and strikeouts. Was good after the first, when he allowed four runs on five hits — four of which came on pitches left over the plate.
— Tim Stebbins (@tim_stebbins) August 3, 2025
Cantillo yielded four runs in the first inning alone, capped off by a two-run hit from Trevor Larnach.
He was much sharper after that dreadful first frame, as he didn’t allow a single hitter to reach scoring position for the remainder of the game.
This was also the first time that he struck out more than seven hitters in a single game.
Per CBS Sports, Cantillo generated 19 swinging strikes on his 91 pitches, with 11 of 14 swings coming against his changeup.
Cantillo is now 2-2 for the season with a 4.37 ERA and 72 strikeouts against 30 walks in 55.2 innings of work.
He will get a chance to build from this outing when he takes the mound on the road against the Chicago White Sox next weekend.
The Guardians can’t afford to drop many more games along the way if they want to stay in the race for the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
And while they made a late-game rally and almost evened things up in the ninth inning, it was too hard to overcome such a negative start to the game.
NEXT: C.J. Kayfus Drawing Praise For Poise At The Plate
