Pitcher's Lively, but the bats aren't vs. SD

CLEVELAND -- When the final chapter is written about the 2024 Guardians, their lethargic showing on Sunday afternoon in a 2-1 loss to the Padres likely will be a mere blip.

That, however, doesn’t change the fact the loss finished off a rough weekend for the first-place Guardians, who recorded only three hits across the final two games of the series at Progressive Field. And while their manager isn’t panicking, there’s no denying they’re in the biggest rut of an otherwise storybook season.

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A day after being one-hit by Dylan Cease and the Padres’ bullpen, the Guardians didn’t get a hit off San Diego starter Michael King until Angel Martínez led the seventh inning off with a single. King worked his changeup, sinker and slider to perfection against Guardians hitters, who did not hit a ball more than 98 mph against King.

“We got really good starting pitchers two days in a row,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “[King’s] got the crisscross game with his sinker and slider, and his changeup was really good today, as well.”

The past seven starters to go against the Guardians have allowed one earned run or fewer.

“It was another good performance against us,” Vogt said.

After the Guardians limped into the All-Star break, their bats were quiet for most of the weekend, outside of a six-run outburst in the eighth inning on Friday. If you remove that inning, the Guardians managed only two runs in the series across 25 innings. They were 3-for-55 (.055) over the final two games.

“I think we're going fine,” Vogt said, “I mean, it's two games in a row. For me, it's keep doing what we do and take care of the little things. We didn't take care of some little things today and yesterday, but I don't think we're going through a funk.”

Cleveland’s lone run on Sunday came after Martínez’s inning-opening single in the seventh was followed by a single from José Ramírez. While Ramírez was thrown out at second on the play thanks to a fantastic throw from Manny Machado, the play allowed Martínez to reach third base. He scored on a groundout by Josh Naylor.

On the other side, the Guardians got another solid start from Ben Lively, who allowed two runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings. But, like Gavin Williams the previous day, Lively’s start was done in by one bad inning.

After All-Star Jackson Merrill walked with one out in the second inning, Ha-Seong Kim reached on a single and stole second, which set up a two-run double from No. 9 hitter Kyle Higashioka.

Although Lively needed 54 pitches to get through the first two innings, he was able to bounce back and give the Guardians some length at a time when they’re exploring every avenue possible to try to find pitching reinforcements.

“I just think about making better pitches, throwing it harder and getting it down,” Lively said of grinding through his start. “Just getting back to throwing competitive pitches and trying to keep pushing on.”

The Padres nearly tagged him for another run in the sixth inning, but right fielder Will Brennan made a fantastic catch on a ball at the wall that would have resulted in at least a double for Machado.

“It was an electric play,” Lively said.

While there haven’t been many electric plays from the Guardians’ offense as of late, Lively isn’t worried about what the future holds for his first-place ballclub.

“You know the bats are going to come back; it's just part of baseball,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep going.”