Guardians Overcome Poor Base Running In Win Over Angels
The Cleveland Guardians walked out of Progressive Field on Saturday night after pulling off an improbable win. A majority of their offense came in the eighth inning, and what a big inning it was.
But before the Guardians started mashing home runs, there were a few errors on the base path which could've easily cost them the game.
Rosario Thrown Out At Third In The First
Cleveland had a chance to get themselves on the board in the first inning. With one out, Josh Bell hit a rocket to right field. Hunter Renfroe made the catch, while Steven Kwan tagged for home and Amed Rosario tagged for third.
Renfore knew home wasn't an option and slung the ball to third on one hop. Rosario was thrown out before Kwan was able to score which mean the inning was over.
Both players are at fault here. Kwan probably should've been hustling to home a little harder and Rosario tagging for third was a little aggressive. We also have to give a ton of credit to Renfroe for a great play.
Still, the Guardians left a run on the board.
Ramirez Picked Off At Second
Jose Ramirez is one of the best base runners in baseball. He rarely ever makes a mistake and knows when it's a good time to take a risk. This made it even more rare when he got picked off at second base after leading off the fourth inning with a double.
The bag was clearly being blocked by shortstop Zach Neto, but getting thrown out without a ball in play isn't a great look.
Gabriel Arias Gets Doubled Up
Anytime the Guardians appeared to have some momentum before the eighth inning it was stopped by a base running error.
Andres Gimenz stood at the plate with Gabriel Arias on first. Gimenez made soft contact on a ball that appeared that it was going to drop in for a bloop single. But Neto made a great play and caught the ball and doubled up Arias at first who took a massive lead.
I will say, this wasn't as egregious as the first two with Arias being put in a tough position to try to tell whether the ball would fall or not. But still, it was frustrating to watch considering what had already transpired.
Even with all of these tiny mental errors, the Guardians didn't give up and Ramirez and Gimenez came in huge in the eighth inning offensive explosion that won them the game.
This tenacity is something we saw with the 2022 Guardians and is awakening with the 2023 squad.
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Read More:
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