Guardians Baseball Insider

Image: Matthew Carper/Columbus Clippers

MARINERS PITCHERS (PROJECTIONS PER FanGraphs)

Yusei Kikuchi (1st-3rd innings): MLB #3 starter
Roenis Elias (4th inning): MLB middle reliever
Rafael Montero (5th inning): MLB closer
Joey Gerber (6th inning): Triple-A reliever
Brandon Brennan (7th inning): Triple-A long reliever/back-of-rotation
Erik Swanson (8th inning): Triple-A, possibly as a starter; has 36 MLB appearances (28 in relief)

STARTERS

Yu Chang (3B): 1-2, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K – Unlike his two homers against the Brewers, which were against pitchers projected for Triple-A, Monday’s round-tripper came off of Kikuchi.

RESERVES

Ernie Clement (PR-2B): 1-1, 2 R, 1 RBI – Clement scored as a pinch runner for Cesar Hernandez in the fifth before picking up his fifth RBI of the spring (in seven games) two innings later. Clement is posting a 1.111 OPS in Cactus action, albeit against an average of 5.1-quality (high-A) pitching.

Gabriel Arias (SS): 1-1, 1 2B, 2 RBI – Arias’ two-run double, which scored Clement’s second run of the game, came off of Brennan, who provides a good measuring stick for the likely Akron-bound Arias.

Alex Call (LF): 1-1 – Call’s single off of Brennan is hopefully a sign that not all of his success (.984 preseason OPS) is attributable to facing sub-5 pitching on average (4.9)

Tyler Krieger (RF): 0-0, 1 BB – Krieger was walked in his lone plate appearance, also by Brennan.

Bo Naylor (C): 1-2, 1 R – Another example of a projected RubberDuck having success against likely Triple-A pitching.

Connor Marabell (PR-1B): 0-1, 1 R – Marabell’s run came as a pinch runner in the 6th (scored on Lavarnway’s homer).

George Valera (PR-CF): no plate appearances, 1 R – Another scorer by way of pinch running (Clement’s single). Not a stat line you see much in the regular season (or Spring Training, for that matter).

Nolan Jones (3B): 0-0, 1 R, 1 BB – Jones also scored despite not having an official at-bat. In his case, however, he did have a plate appearance.

PITCHERS

Emmanuel Clase: 1 IP, perfect, 2 K – Clase plowed through a mix of Triple-A and Double-A hitting like a hot knife through butter, which is expected for a pitcher of his caliber. More notable, however, was the fact that he proved he still has triple-digit speed in his arsenal.

Nick Sandlin: 1 IP, 2 BB. 2 K – Some control issues for Sandlin, but it was his first time on the mound in a game situation since June 29, 2019, ending a streak of 617 days without pitching in a real baseball game.