Guardians Baseball Insider

The offense that was obliterating pitching staffs to start the season has disappeared recently with the absence of Jhonkensey Noel and Micah Pries. Noel came back this week after suffering a hand injury when he was hit on the hand by a pitch two weeks ago. He had one at bat, slid into second base weirdly and is out again with an ankle injury. Pries pulled up lame after a triple two weeks ago and is now nursing a hamstring injury. They might be missing Noel a lot, as he is considered one of their leaders with his passion on the field . They also lost Xzavion Curry in a promotion to Lake County. 

Week in Review

6/3 L 7-3 vs. Salem – W: Perry (1); L: Morillo (0-2)

6/4 L 2-0 vs. Salem – W: Zeferjahn (1-3); L: Jones (0-3); S: Walter (2)

6/5 W 5-1 vs. Salem – W: Hart (1-1): L: Blalock (0-1)

6/6 L 9-2 vs. Salem – W: Kwiatkowski (3-0); L: Torres (0-1)

6/8 L 3-2 vs. Delmarva – W: Denoyer (3-0); L: Labaut (2-1); S: Perkins (3)

6/9 0-0 vs. Delmarva – Suspended in 2nd inning

Player of the Week

OF Cody Farhat – 5-17, 3B, SB

Admittedly, this is a stretch. The Hillcats offense struggled all week and they only got good starting pitching in three of their six games, but nothing outstanding. Farhat was the only one that put up a halfway consistent performance all week. It was either Farhat’s two multi hit games or a reliever in this spot, but someone had to win and he’s up to a .750 OPS at least. 

Who’s Hot:

RP Zach Hart – 4IP, 2H, ER, BB, 8K

Hart was impressive to start the season with his big curveball and high riding fastball. His control eluded him in some outings but he’s been huge for them in a multi-inning relief role. He picked up the only Hillcats win of the week with a strong performance behind Josh Wolf, who also had a better week last week with four shutout innings.

RP Juan Zapata – 3IP, 2H, ER, BB, 5K

Zapata made his 2021 debut with a start in Lake County last week and then went down to Lynchburg to swap spots with Xzavion Curry, who got the promotion up to the Captains. He gave the Hillcats a chance to win in a 3-2 loss to Delmarva to start this next week. He’s got a fastball and curveball that’s 88-91.

Who’s Not

Hillcats offense – 32-162 (.197 avg) 3 HR, 3 3B, 4 2B, 12 runs scored in 6 games (2 per game)

Hard to single out any one hitter struggling when the offense as whole scored more than two runs just twice all week and scored two or less three times. A far cry from the offensively thunderous team that started the season. They really miss Jhonkensey Noel and Micah Pries offensively.

SP Sergio Morrilo –  2.1IP, 7ER, 3BB

Morrilo has had a tough go of it all year now with a 15.00 ERA. Not sure if there’s any other pitching Cleveland can send to Lynchburg yet but hard to believe they’ll let him continue to get tattooed like this. Even if it’s developmental, it can’t be good for his confidence.

Coming Up

6/9 vs Delmarva (7 innings)

6/9 vs Delmarva (7 innings)

6/10 vs Delmarva

6/11 vs Delmarva

6/12 vs Delmarva

6/13 vs Delmarva

6/15 AT Fredericksburg

6/16 AT Fredericksburg