CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The beauty of baseball is you never know what you will see on a given day or night at the ballpark.
Closer Emmanuel Clase gave up a run on three hits in the ninth but Mike Tauchman, who suffered an undisclosed lower body injury after rounding third, was thrown out at home while trying to score the tying run to preserve a 3-2 win for the Guardians at Progressive Field.
Here’s the top news and notes from game two against the White Sox
Don’t see that every day – It’s been an interesting start to the home schedule for the Guardians between Tuesday’s bases loaded walk walk-off and Wednesday night’s ending. “It's definitely something a little different,” left fielder Steven Kwan said. “You come to the ballpark, you can see something new every day, so it's good that we were on this end of it, but we could have very easily been on the other side, so definitely a little lucky, but hopefully we're going to play some better baseball coming up.” For Chicago, it marked the first time in franchise history they lost back-to-back games while allowing three or fewer hits.
Catching up to Clase – Clase escaped the blown save thanks to Tauchman’s injury while trying to score the tying run that ended the game. “Emmanuel Clase is still the best pitcher in the world,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “He's got to make some adjustments, he needs to pitch maybe a little bit differently or just get back to hitting his spots. And I think we see it at times where it's like, okay, there it is. But these teams are good and they have a good game plan and they're getting to him a little bit right now. So for him, it's just, we got to think about it a little bit differently, a little different attack plan like we talked about. We just have to be unpredictable and he still has the ability to make a pitch when he needs to.” Clase allowed a run on three hits and also struck out a pair. “I just see the league having a good plan against him,” catcher Austin Hedges said. “He has been the best pitcher in the world for the first however many years of his career. And when you play the Guardians, every team's got a hitter's game plan against opposing pitchers and you better have a good game plan against him. Otherwise he's just going to roll right through you. And I think teams probably got sick and tired of him making it look so easy and the league's been making some good adjustments and now it's time for us to make an adjustment.”
Final out – White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas singled on a ground ball to left fielder Steven Kwan scoring Jacob Amaya before Tauchman came up hobbling on his way home making it easy for Hedges to tag him out a few feet in front of the plate. “Had a good feeling Kwan was going to throw him out,” Hedges said. “Third base coach got to send him in that situation, but Kwan got a good read on it and made a great throw at home.”
Slamtana – Carlos Santana hit his second home run of the season, a 410-foot shot to right center in the bottom of the third that gave the Guardians a 3-1 lead. “I know I made good contact,” Sanatana said. Santana is hitting .286 with two homers and four RBI through the first 11 games. “Carlos is exactly why he has 15 years in the big leagues,” Vogt said. “He's a consistent at bat. I think that's something that we are missing in the middle of our order last year and this year is that constant, consistent grade at bat. And Carlos brings that stability for us and he walks, he makes the pitcher come into the zone, and if you make a mistake, he's going to hit it hard. And he did that tonight.”
Dodged one – Outfielder Lane Thomas is day-to-day after his right wrist was hit by a pitch from White Sox starter Shane Smith Tuesday. “He's sore,” Vogt said. Fortunately, no fractures. Looks like we avoided something bigger, but he's definitely sore today. We're going, he's going to go through some treatments and see how he's feeling. Maybe available to off the bench for something tonight. We're not sure, just kind of day to day for now.”
Roster move – The Guardians sent Johnathan Rodriguez back to AAA Columbus and called up Angel Martinez Wednesday. “Johnathan didn't do anything wrong. It just was a matter of not enough playing time and we want him to go get regular bats,” Vogt said. “He's working through some swing things and so it's a lot easier to do that when you're getting at bats and Angel brings us a lot of versatility off the bench that we just don't have right now, so just kind of felt like it was the right move. Angel gives us the versatility to switch hitter, can play all three outfield positions, three infield positions, and just kind of gives us that utility guy. He's going to get some starts here and there, but majority will be a utility guy off the bench.” Martinez hit .344 (11-for-32) through the first eight games with six doubles, eight RBI while starting multiple games at second base, left field and center field for the Clippers.
Up next – The Guardians wrap up their series with Chicago Thursday afternoon at 1:10. RHP Gavin Williams (0-0, 4.50) vs. RHP Jonathan Cannon (0-1, 3.12)