BOSTON -- Trying to keep their playoff dreams within grasp, the Guardians capitalized on a rare off night from Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet with seven runs off the lefty, including four homers on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.
But the Red Sox quickly tied the game with a Monster homer of their own off starter Slade Cecconi, who surrendered seven runs over 5 1/3 innings. Cleveland’s offensive onslaught offers hope, but the wear and tear of a full season on young arms is starting to show.
As the Guardians look to make a last-minute push for the third AL Wild Card spot, they’ll hope to offer their young starters some breathing room with an extra arm in their rotation.
Cleveland will deploy a six-man rotation for the foreseeable future, manager Stephen Vogt said on Tuesday ahead of the Guardians' 11-7 loss to the Red Sox. Joey Cantillo will start in Wednesday’s series finale at Fenway Park, joining Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Cecconi, Logan Allen and Parker Messick in the rotation.
“We're going to go with the six-man rotation for a little while,” Vogt said. “Just with the starting pitching, where they are innings wise and where they are in their career. And we have 24 games in 24 days, so we thought it was a good opportunity for us to get them … they’ll all be on five days' rest throughout this long process.”
Of the six starters, Cecconi and Williams have already passed their career highs in innings pitched, with Allen and Bibee nearing theirs. Cecconi’s outing brought his season total to 107 1/3 innings. The right-hander surpassed his previous high of 77 innings one start into August. Williams is at 143 2/3 on the season, nearly doubling his 76 innings from last year.
The Guardians have not yet set an innings cap for any of their starters, and instead are more focused on overall workload and monitoring the quality of each pitcher’s stuff.
Through five innings on Tuesday, Cecconi’s stuff was good enough for Vogt to send the right-hander out for the sixth in hopes of sparing the bullpen a few outs. He’d surrendered five earned runs, but also struck out eight and retired nine of the last 12 batters he faced entering the sixth -- including the middle of the order in Jarren Duran, Trevor Story and Nathaniel Lowe.
After retiring leadoff man Romy Gonzalez, Cecconi gave up a double to Masataka Yoshida and threw a middle-middle slider that Ceddanne Rafaela hit for a game-tying home run.
“Behavior is controllable, results are not,” Cecconi said. “I think that the execution and the stuff was, agreed, some of the best it's been. Think I threw 63 strikes and [82] pitches. It was a really easy day to look at the results and say it didn't go well. But I think there's a lot of good to take out of today. It's unfortunate how it went in the results column, but there's a lot to take from that game and build off of.”
Cecconi spent the past two years with the Diamondbacks working both as a starter and out of the bullpen. In his first full season as a starter, the 26-year-old is focused on what he can control. Cecconi's efforts to manage his own workload fall in line with the advice of his manager, who stresses to his starters the importance of taking care of your body and learning how to create a sustainable routine over six months.
“I take pride in how I take care of my body and my mind,” Cecconi said. “And I feel like I'm at my best right now in terms of clarity and focus as well as where my body is in terms of stuff and command. And it's unfortunate how it went tonight and the results column, but I feel that the work that I put in and the work that the staff puts in with me is paying off and allowing me to be where I am at this workload.”