Foster Griffin Gets Honest About His Performance On Saturday

The Cleveland Guardians rode a seven-game winning streak into this weekend’s series against the suddenly red-hot Kansas City Royals, but they have now dropped two in a row to open the series after Saturday’s 8-3 loss. Cleveland will look to avoid the sweep on Sunday with Parker Messick on the hill as he aims to prevent his team from falling back under .500.

Foster Griffin had a solid outing on Saturday, going five innings and giving up two earned runs with one walk and four strikeouts. The game was 2-2 after he exited, but Colin Holderman blew it in the sixth inning and the Guards were never able to recover.

When speaking about his performance after the game, Griffin touched on how his command improved during the outing, but he made a few mistakes in the fifth inning.

“I feel like my command got better as the game went on, but left a couple pitches up in the zone for a couple damage pitches,” said Griffin.

"I feel like my command got better as the game went on, but left a couple pitches up in the zone for a couple damage pitches"

(via #Guardians Zoom) Foster Griffin goes over his start vs the Royals Saturday#GuardsBall @WEWS pic.twitter.com/L5kAHPQsy9

— Mason Horodyski (@MasonHorodyski) August 30, 2026

Griffin had won his previous three starts and now sits at 15-4 on the year with a 3.21 ERA on the season. He has been exactly what the team expected when he was acquired from the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline, and it’s unfortunate that he couldn’t get a little more support on Saturday to keep his winning streak going.

He held the Royals scoreless through four innings before Nick Loftin and Tyler Tolbert whacked doubles off of him in the fifth, leading to the two earned runs. It certainly wasn’t a bad outing, but you could sense the regret during his presser that he felt he left a little bit of meat on the bone and would have liked to finish stronger.

Griffin will have a chance to redeem himself when he takes the mound next Friday against the Detroit Tigers. This loss wasn’t on him, and surely he’ll be able to put it behind him and keep rolling.