The Cleveland Guardians were flying high until some bad weather and strong pitching brought things to an end on Saturday at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Guardians’ hot offense was shut down by Zack Wheeler, who ended Cleveland’s seven-game winning streak by a score of 3-0.
It wasn’t an ideal day at the ballpark, but you can’t win them all and the streak had to come to an end at some point. Cleveland will have a chance to bounce back and take the series on Sunday with Parker Messick on the hill, but manager Stephen Vogt had a few things to say before his team officially turned the page on Saturday’s stinker.
During his postgame comments shared by Joe Noga on Cleveland.com, Vogt tipped his cap to Wheeler. He didn’t mince any words or blame his team for the performance, as he lauded Wheeler for being one of the toughest matchups his team has seen all year and it sounds like he is simply ready to turn the page.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball for a reason,” Vogt said. “I haven’t seen someone hit the top rail as well as he did tonight and obviously he had enough offspeed to keep us off of it. We did a pretty good job laying off of him down below the zone, but he didn’t give us anything to hit.”
Wheeler has been unbelievable since coming off the injured list following his bout with thoracic outlet syndrome, and the Guardians were just next in line on his war path. He has been dominant in all six of his starts this season and the Phillies have won all six of them.
It was the kind of loss you simply have to throw out and completely forget about, because this team is playing too well to get derailed by a gem like that. It was the second day in a row Cleveland was blanked by the Phillies’ starter after Cristopher Sanchez was equally as dominant on Friday, so hopefully the bats can heat back up against Andrew Painter on Sunday.
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