The Cleveland Guardians might be losing their grip on the AL Central, falling two games behind the Chicago White Sox for the top spot after their crushing defeat on Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a winning team.
Cleveland has advanced to the postseason in seven of the last ten seasons. That’s something you would expect from the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Dodgers, big-market teams that spend much more than the Guardians.
The Guardians might be frustratingly cheap at times, but they compete. And no one can take that away from them. Year in and year out, they produce talented young players who carry the team and give it a fighting chance.
That, according to catcher Austin Hedges, is the primary trait behind their winning culture.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys in here, and there’s a lot to learn in this game,” said Hedges, per Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. “There’s a lot of ways to respond to situations. The natural reaction is to react to situations. But I think what this group does really well is respond to things. I think that’s why we win a lot of ball games. We also have a lot of belief in everybody here.”
On Tuesday, Cooper Ingle made a crucial mistake, throwing the ball to the stands thinking the inning was over when, in reality, he had just caught the second out of the frame and not the third. The Rangers scored the go-ahead run on the play in the seventh inning.
Hedges is suggesting that Ingle’s ability to respond and react to that play will determine how good and useful he will be in the short term. He has been very mature about it so far, apologizing to his teammates and owning up to his mistake.
He mustn’t let the play get into his head and affect his offensive performance, though. Hedges believes that these young players, Ingle included, respond well to those things, and the rookie has a chance to prove him right in the next few days.
Per Hoynes, the Guardians have lost 7 of their last 11 games and wrapped up June with a 10-15 record after going 18-11 in May. It’s time for them to respond to adversity, and young players like Ingle will be the ones in charge of stepping up.
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