Deadline acquisition Craig Yoho, brought in to fortify the bullpen, has pitched four games with the Cleveland Guardians. The first two yielded scoreless appearances, and he seemed primed to be one of the most trusted relievers in manager Stephen Vogt’s bullpen.
The last two, however, have been a complete disaster, with seven earned runs in 1.1 innings combined. In Sunday’s loss, he faced seven batters and could only retire one of them: he walked four and allowed two hits, one of which left the yard.
He has been so bad in those two outings that the 3.15 ERA he brought to Cleveland from Milwaukee for the season is now at a mediocre 5.40. That’s how rough his last two games have been.
To make matters worse, the Guardians’ offense continues to be highly inconsistent. They put together eight runs on Friday’s opener, yet scored just six between Saturday and Sunday.
Analyst Justin Lada highlighted the sad reality of the Guardians: they can’t seem to put everything together to go on a run. When they score some runs, the pitching starts struggling, and when both units seem to be clicking, the defense drops the ball.
“Today, it was one reliever [Craig Yoho], and it was the hitting. Once again, the Guardians have a hard time hitting when they pitch, and pitching when they hit, and, sometimes, playing defense. They can’t put all the pieces of the puzzle together. We’re going to see where this team is when they go into Detroit, who’s now playing well and ahead of them,” Lada said.
Yoho will get more chances to turn the page and help the Guardians, but his last two appearances have been really frustrating. The offense has been an ongoing issue for weeks now, though, even months.
Cleveland brought in some potential improvements in Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe, but they need some key hitters to catch fire: Jose Ramirez, Travis Bazzana, and Brayan Rocchio in particular are the ones who need to step up and help the red-hot Steven Kwan, rookie Angel Genao, the newcomers, and young players like Chase DeLauter and Angel Martinez. In other words, the Guardians’ hitters need to be more consistent.
For some reason, they all can’t seem capable of catching fire at the same time.
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