Guardians Baseball Insider

NOTE: All Quality of Opponent numbers through Saturday’s game – via Baseball Reference

ATHLETICS PITCHERS (PROJECTIONS PER FanGraphs)

Grant Holmes: 1st and 2nd innings – Triple-A #2 starter
Jake Diekman: 3rd inning – MLB 8th-inning set-up man
Lou Trivino: 4th and 5th innings – MLB middle reliever
Dany Jimenez: 6th inning – MLB long reliever
Paul Blackburn: 7th inning – Starter, not projected for MLB rotation, but out of options

STARTERS

Yu Chang (3B): 1-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K – Chang’s RBI single came in the sixth against Jimenez, as did much of the Tribe’s offensive success on Sunday.

Bobby Bradley (1B): 0-3, 1 RBI – Bradley’s RBI came on a ground out in the at-bat following Chang’s aforementioned single.

Daniel Johnson (RF): 0-2 – Johnson lined out and grounded out, both against projected major league relievers.

Mike Freeman (2B): 0-2, 1 K – Although the methods of getting out were different (fly out and called strikeout), Freeman’s day at the plate was otherwise a carbon copy of Johnson’s.

RESERVES

Tyler Freeman (PR-SS): 0-0, 1 R, 1 BB – Freeman scored his run as a pinch runner on the Chang single before being walked by Blackburn in the Indians’ penultimate plate appearance of the contest.

Tyler Krieger (PR-LF): 0-1, 1 R, 1 K – Krieger also scored his run in the sixth as a pinch runner, in his case on the Bradley groundout.

Owen Miller (3B): no plate appearances – Miller did not come to the plate for the second consecutive day (Saturday was his first off day of the spring).

Connor Marabell (1B): no plate appearances – Marabell made it five straight days without a plate appearance (off Wednesday and Saturday and solely defensive appearances off of the bench the other three days).

Will Benson (RF): 0-1, 1 K – Benson, who was struck out on a foul tip by Jimenez, has had more success via plate discipline (three walks and .300 isolated plate discipline) than with his bat (1-for-5) this spring (against 5.3 – High-A – opposition).

Gabriel Arias (PH-2B): 0-1 – Arias was retired for the first time this spring after starting 6-for-6, but did so against a projected major leaguer, compared to the 4.2-average (Low-A) pitching he was feasting on in his first three games in the Valley of the Sun.

Steven Kwan (CF): 0-1 – Kwan’s double on Wednesday remains his only hit in five at-bats this preseason.

PITCHERS

Jean Carlos Mejia: 1 IP, perfect, 2 K – Mejia (projected by IBI to start the season in the Double-A Akron RubberDucks rotation) was stellar in his first appearance of the 2021 Cactus Campaign against a pair of projected Triple-A players and one Double-A projectee (C Kyle McCann) in a game where the result had already been decided.