The Cleveland Guardians won on Friday against a really good Philadelphia Phillies team, and currently have the best record in the American League at 62-41.
The bullpen, once again, performed admirably: Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Emmanuel Clase sealed the deal and kept the Phils at bay in the late innings.
Believe it or not, Clase has saved more than half of the Guardians’ victories.
You could say he is the Guardian of the late leads.
By saving each of Cleveland’s last three wins, he is up to 32 on the year.
He is as automatic as it gets in the ninth inning in MLB as a whole.
In fact, there is a stat, posted by Codify Baseball via Twitter, that shows just how dominant he has been for an extended period.
“The Cleveland Guardians have won all of the last 64 games in which they had a lead going into the ninth inning,” they tweeted.
The Cleveland Guardians have won all of the last 64 games in which they had a lead going into the ninth inning. pic.twitter.com/pwBjkoMVoL
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 27, 2024
Everybody in baseball knows that trailing a game going into the ninth inning essentially means they lost because they have to face the most consistent closer in baseball: Clase.
He makes it look easy, but pitching 100-mph cutters night in and night out certainly isn’t.
With perfect command and the ability to generate swings and misses as well as weak contact, there is almost no way to hurt Clase.
We focus on him because he is the one pitching the ninth inning the vast majority of the time, but the rest of the Guardians lineup is almost equally nasty: Gaddis, Smith, Tim Herrin, Nick Sandlin, Pedro Avila, Scott Barlow, Sam Hentges, and others have done an amazing job whenever they are called upon.
It’s impossible not to highlight the guy who has a 0.74 ERA in 48.1 innings, though.
With a 1.79 ERA career ERA, Clase seems destined to end up in Cooperstown if he keeps this up.
NEXT: Guardians Beat Best Team In MLB Behind Ben Lively
