Last night, the Cleveland Guardians got a shot in the arm when reliever James Karinchak entered the game and had a scoreless outing through 1.2 innings against the Boston Red Sox.
It wasn’t enough for the Guardians to pull off a win and continue the Red Sox losing skid, but Karinchak looked pretty solid out of the bullpen last night, as he struck out four Sox batters.
Karinchak had been out with a back injury since the beginning of the season.
He made his return on July 3, but his outing last night may have been his best one of the year thus far.
MLB insider Rob Friedman tweeted a video of him striking out the side in last night’s game.
James Karinchak, K'ing the Side. pic.twitter.com/QnNKqlM9Yt
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 26, 2022
Karinchak Returns To Form
It appears that Karinchak is back to his old self.
The way he blew those pitches by the Red Sox hitters says it all.
He went out and gave the Guardians a scoreless outing and helped keep them within striking distance.
Ultimately, the Red Sox won the game by a final score of 3-1.
The loss dropped Cleveland to 48-47 on the season, 3.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central and three games back of the Seattle Mariners in the AL Wild Card race.
But Karinchak looked good.
The Guardians may be in need of some pitching at the trade deadline.
Having Karinchak back helps some with that.
That gives them an extra arm at the back end of ballgames to go along with All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase.
As Karinchak walked off the mound, he seemed confident again.
That should encourage the Guardians as we move closer and closer to the stretch run.
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