The Cleveland Guardians didn’t get much from the mound in their first game of a doubleheader at Nationals Park.
They made a strong push with six runs in the seventh inning.
Unfortunately, they gave up four runs in the bottom of the inning to drop a 10-9 decision to the Washington Nationals.
It was an uncharacteristically poor outing by the Guardians’ usually strong bullpen.
Cade Smith allowed four runs, and Hunter Gaddis wasn’t much better.
Even so, manager Stephen Vogt knows that these things happen at times, so he’s not too worried about this becoming a trend for two of his top guys out of the bullpen.
When asked about it, Vogt stated that it wasn’t something he was concerned about.
“At the end of the day, we roll with our best bullpen guys all the time. I think that’s a one-off for both of them,” Vogt said of Smith and Gaddis.
Smith was tagged with his first loss of the season.
He struck out two and issued a walk while also allowing three hits and four earned runs in 0.2 frames.
Gaddis, who owns a 0.66 ERA, gave up a hit and issued a walk while striking out one hitter to get out of the inning.
On a positive note, the Guardians’ seventh inning was their highest-scoring inning of the season, and it also included a season-best seven hits.
The Guardians still managed to split the double-header, storming right back with a 9-1 triumph in Game 2 to take their season record to 21-15 and keep creeping closer to the division-leading Detroit Tigers.
They will take the field again on Wednesday afternoon, with Logan Allen (1-2, 4.02 ERA) taking the mound to face Michael Soroka (0-1, 7.20 ERA).
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