The Cleveland Guardians wrapped up an unfortunate road trip on Wednesday with a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Cleveland dropped two out of three games in St. Louis on the heels of losing two of three at the Atlanta Braves as well to drop to 10-9 on the season.
The team will now head back home and look to regroup ahead of a four-game set with the Baltimore Orioles beginning on Thursday. It won’t be easy forgetting about this brief road trip, as the Guardians unfortunately did something for the first time all year.
It will certainly happen multiple times this year, but P.J. Ziegler of FOX 8 shared that this was the first time Cleveland lost back-to-back games this season.
“#Guardians lose their second straight series and lose back-to-back games for the first time this season, falling to the #Cardinals, 5-3,” said Ziegler.
#Guardians lose their second straight series and lose back-to-back games for the first time this season, falling to the #Cardinals, 5-3.
— P.J. ZIEGLER (@PJFOX8) April 15, 2026
The losses over the course of these two series can’t be attributed to one area of the team. The rotation, bullpen, and lineup all played a role in coming up short in St. Louis and Atlanta, but good teams know how to look at the positive developments and not let the losses linger.
For specific areas of needed improvement, one can look at Tanner Bibee and Slade Cecconi. Cleveland has now lost seven of the eight games those two have started thus far as they have each gotten lit up and combined for just one start that made it through six innings.
Their subpar performance has only stuck out even more due to Parker Messick, Joey Cantillo, and Gavin Williams combining for a 1.91 ERA in their 11 starts so far. It’s tough to develop any sort of consistency as a team when 40 percent of the rotation is either getting lit up or failing to consistently get deep into ballgames.
The lack of length out of those two spots in the rotation has compromised the bullpen as well.
The offense is showing signs of waking up, but this is a team built around its pitching staff. Guardians fans need to see a couple of complete solid trips through the rotation to get their hopes up about this season again.
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