The Cleveland Guardians beat the Texas Rangers on Monday and built a one-game lead over the Minnesota Twins at the top of the AL Central.
They have a 26-16 record and are back to playing with confidence after their ugly three-game losing streak against the Chicago White Sox last week.
The offense showed up in the past couple of games, as has the rotation.
There is a unit, however, that has produced excellent results the whole season: the bullpen.
Cleveland has, as of Tuesday afternoon, MLB’s best bullpen by ERA.
“The Guardians’ 2.43 bullpen ERA is currently the lowest in MLB. The last time Cleveland had a reliever ERA this low through 41 games was back in 2017. The 2024 group has already thrown 30.1 more innings then them,” Cleveland Baseball Insider tweeted.
The Guardians' 2.43 bullpen ERA is currently the lowest in MLB.
The last time Cleveland had a reliever ERA this low through 41 games was back in 2017. The 2024 group has already thrown 30.1 more innings then them. #Guardians | #ForTheLand
— Cleveland Baseball Insider (@CBI_FanNation) May 13, 2024
A 2.43 bullpen ERA is magnificent.
As you can see, Cleveland hasn’t had such a great performance by relievers in seven years.
Those 2017 Guardians had Andrew Miller and Cody Allen leading the bullpen, so yes, what this unit has been doing is quite an achievement.
Emmanuel Clase and Tim Herrin both have an ERA under 1.00, Nick Sandlin (1.74) is under 2.00 and Eli Morgan, Hunter Gaddis, and Cade Smith are in the low 2.00s.
After a slow start, Scott Barlow has turned things around and his ERA stands at a solid 3.54.
The unit as a whole has been performing at a high level, and it’s a big reason why the Guardians have been so good in the first month-and-a-half of the regular season.
It’s deep, it’s great, and there is more help on the way when some injured pitchers return.
NEXT: Guardians Pitcher Details How The Team Stays Level Amid Adversity
