Cleveland's Bats Still Cold, Guardians Drop Series Opener To Rockies

The Colorado Rockies beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-0 in the series opener on Monday night.

The Cleveland Guardians slipped back into their offensive struggles on Monday night after waking up the bats for the series finale against the Miami Marlins. This looked like it could be the perfect game to right the ship. However, that wasn't the case as the Colorado Rockies shut out the Guardians on just four hits.

The Rockies came into the series with the second-high team ERA in baseball and the highest in the National League. It seemed like a perfect way for the Guardians to take advantage of struggling to pitch. 

Terry Francona's Postgame Presser:

Instead, Cleveland's struggles against left-handed pitching continued and they were blanked by Austin Gomber. The lefty started the game with a 12.12 ERA and pitched 5.0 scoreless innings and only gave up three hits.

All three of these hits came from Steven Kwan who was the only Guardian that had success on Monday night. He had three of the team's four hits and was the closest player to get to scoring. The other hit went to Myles Straw.

Now we have to talk about the pitching.

Cal Quantrill was roughed up on Monday night, there's no other way to put it. He gave up a solo home run in the first inning which was just one of five runs he allowed in 3.1 innings of work.

This was Qunatrill's fifth start of the season and giving up runs has been an early trend for him this season. Quantrill was one of the best soft-contact pitchers over the last two seasons. However, the soft contact is turning into hard contact which is giving him a lot of trouble. 

After the game, he said he just, "didn't make good pitches and just didn't have my best game today."

The Guardians have a chance to bounce back and take the series on Tuesday with Peyton Battenfield on the mound. 

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Read More:

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Guardians Avoid Series Sweep, Beat Marlins 7-4

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Photo Credit © Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports