Allen solid, but ‘flat’ Cleveland Guardians struggle in field in finale
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen has been depleted after the club played in four consecutive extra-inning matches for the first time in 1910. The position players, too, were saddled with extra work. For a team struggling to get quality innings from its starting staff, Logan Allen was a breath of fresh Air for the Guardians in the series finale against the Houston Astros. However the toll of the past four matches caught up with Cleveland. Although Allen was solid through 5 ⅔ innings, conceding three runs (two earned) with five strikeouts and one walk. It was his defense backing him that failed. This resulted in an 8-2 Guardians defeat to the Astros at Minute Maid Park. “I thought tonight we were a little flat. Expectedly,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “This has been a long trip, a lot of close games. It’s not an excuse by any means. We need to play better than we did tonight.” The Guardians started the match with a two-run lead in the top of the third, but when around second half, they were suddenly halted. The third Everything began with a wonky pop that should have been caught in foul territory, instead the rafters caught it and it never came down. Rather than an out, Houston led off the frame with a single. Three batters later, with one out and two men on, Allen got José Altuve to show up in foul territory. Both Josh and Bo Naylor raced to catch the ball. They made it in plenty of time. But neither communicated and the ball dropped in between. The at-bat continued and Altuve secured a single. Eventualy, the bases were loaded and the only run Houston pushed across the plate in that inning, was on a passed ball by Naylor. It was a 91.9 mph fastball that was high out of the strike zone. “Those things happen,” Vogt said. “Not very often with Bo. Not very often with our catchers, but they do happen. It’s frustrating.” The Sixth With one out, Jeremy Peña sent a fly ball into deep center field off of Allen. Gabriel Arias, who was playing center, had lots of ground to cover, but easily chased the ball down. But when the ball came down, it hit off the end of his glove and landed on the warning track. This allowed Peña to get a triple instead of returning to the dugout. “I don’t feel the difficulty to adjust to different positions,” Arias, a natural infielder, said of playing center field through team interpreter Agustin Rivero. “It’s not good that it happened to me, but things are going to keep happening to everybody.” Allen struck out the next batter he faced, but instead being out of the inning, he saw another batter. That hitter, Jon Singleton took him deep for a two-run homer. Arias stood in center for Tyler Freeman, who was absent. Vogt has been trying to get every player as consistent of playing time as possible. This meant that Arias has needed to be versatile. Last season, he saw time in when necessary, but this year, he has played three matches in center. The Seventh Arias was tested again. On a ball hit to his backhand, he attempted to make a sliding play instead of letting the ball fall and getting in front of it. The ball rolled away from him, finding the warning track. Jake Meyers got a triple that turned into a run on an Altuve single in the next at-bat. “I mean those are two tough plays,” Vogt said. “He made great routes to both of them, just didn’t complete the catch. … We feel very comfortable with him out there. I still do.” This is not how Cleveland would have wanted to end their trip to Houston. It was also not how the Guardians wanted to reward Allen for his works on the mound. But now, the club must go back home and hit the reset button. “That’s a big part of our identity is playing defense,” Allen said, “and we’ll get back on track.”
