The Cleveland Guardians need someone to step up on offense.
The MLB season is a long grind with ebbs and flows, and as such, planning is of the utmost importance, especially for teams that rely on just a couple of players for production.
Notably, manager Stephen Vogt puts together his lineups five or six games in advance.
Of course, he’s always open to making some matchup or health-based adjustments, but he also does so to figure out who gets to rest and when.
In a recent interview with Cleveland.com, he admitted that he didn’t let the team’s record influence his decision-making process, but that’s also what makes it so challenging:
“It’s hard to give your everyday players a day off, but you have to stay diligent to it because it’s a marathon,” said Vogt. “I try not to let our won-loss record affect that because you have to stick to those plans. If you start chasing every single day, then the plan’s not going to work because you’re never going to end up giving anybody a day off … We want to win the marathon. We’re here to get into the playoffs and win the World Series.”
That was evident again on Friday when Steve Kwan sat to get some rest.
Then, he opted to bench Carlos Santana, with Jose Ramirez at DH and Will Wilson starting at third base.
Unfortunately, his tweaks haven’t done much to help the team’s ever-struggling offense.
The team has lost three games in a row, and, perhaps more worryingly, they’ve scored a grand total of five runs.
They lost to the New York Yankees 0-4 on Thursday, and then lost 4-2 and 5-3 to the Houston Astros.
They went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position in their 10-inning loss to the Astros, also leaving 12 runners on base.
The Guardians are averaging just 2.5 runs per game in June, the second-worst average in the American League during that span.
That’s a notorious drop from the 4.3 runs per game they averaged in May, and a worrisome trend going forward.
NEXT: Analyst Reveals Harsh Truth About Guardians' Offense
