Guardians Announce Pitching Plans For Sunday, Including Interesting Experiment

The Cleveland Guardians couldn’t take advantage of the New York Yankees loss on Saturday and dropped their own game against the Houston Astros.

That means the Guards are now locked in the second seed of the American League.

They will enjoy home-field advantage in the AL Division Series and also in the AL Championship Series, as long as they don’t face the Yankees.

The fact that there is nothing to play for on Sunday gives them a chance to experiment.

They will do so with their pitching plans.

We already knew that they would use an opener ahead of bulk pitcher Gavin Williams.

Now, we know who is taking the ball for those initial 1-2 frames.

“Nick Sandlin will open for the Guardians tomorrow. The expectation is that Gavin Williams will come in as the bulk guy,” Guardians insider Mandy Bell posted on X.

Nick Sandlin will open for the Guardians tomorrow. The expectation is that Gavin Williams will come in as the bulk guy.

— Mandy Bell (@MandyBell02) September 29, 2024

Williams is a talented young pitcher, but the 2024 campaign has been rather disappointing for him.

After overcoming elbow issues in the first few weeks, he has returned to post a mediocre 4.86 ERA in 76 innings.

Everybody knows he can be much better than that, though.

Solving that first inning has been challenging for Williams, though, hence the idea of putting an opener in front of him.

He has a horrible 6.32 ERA in the opening frame this year, in 15.2 innings.

The Guardians want to see how he fares without having to deal with the opposition’s first three or four batters in the first inning of his outing.

It could be a worthy experiment with October in mind.