Rookie pitcher quietly proving his worth to Guardians

This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Getting swept in a doubleheader to the Tigers can easily make some positive takeaways fade into the background. But don’t let Peyton Battenfield get lost in the shuffle.

All eyes have been on Minor League arms like Logan Allen or Tanner Bibee over the last few weeks (and rightfully so), but Battenfield is quietly proving that he can handle filling in for Aaron Civale -- at least so far.

After his strong performance against the Yankees, giving up one earned run in 4 2/3 innings with no walks and three strikeouts, he permitted just three hits in six innings against the Tigers. Unfortunately for the Guardians, one of those three hits was a solo homer on a day when Cleveland's bats struggled to heat up.

But that one blemish wasn’t even that big of a blemish. According to Statcast, the 354-foot homer down the left-field line from Detroit’s Riley Greene in the sixth inning would’ve only been a home run in 12 parks (and not at Progressive Field). That stat merely shows that Greene just got enough of the pitch to squeak it over the wall and didn’t demolish some tape-measure shot into the seats.

Battenfield has been tough to hit. And his opponents have proved it.

Against the Yankees in his debut, Battenfield gave up a leadoff double but went on to retire the next 13 batters he faced -- a stretch that started with a strikeout of Aaron Judge. Against the Tigers, he gave up just two hits through the first five innings before Greene’s homer came in the sixth.

“I thought he was tremendous,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said after Tuesday’s doubleheader. “He really pitched well. He used all his pitches: Cutter, curveball, fastball, in a game where one play can maybe make the difference.”

There’s a reason that cutter was listed first.

When a pitcher first reaches the big leagues, there’s little information for opponents to collect in preparation to face him. The longer Battenfield sticks around, maybe we’ll start to see some adjustments being made. For now, his cutter looks like one of the most dominant pitches in the game.

In his first start, Battenfield’s cutter induced 12 whiffs out of the 20 swings batters took against it. On Tuesday, he got 11 more whiffs on 31 swings.

"They didn't like it at all,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said, when asked about Battenfield’s cutter. “They didn't love facing him. It's a different approach. It's one of the highest release points, and the ball moves a little bit. I think more than what they said with their words, they said with their actions. We didn't get a lot of great swings against him. But we got one."

Battenfield was put in a tough spot. The Guardians unexpectedly lost Civale last week to a left muscle strain. Hunter Gaddis was already in the rotation to replace Triston McKenzie, who has been sidelined since the last week of Spring Training with a teres major muscles train. The Guardians will continue to balance when it’s the right time to call on highly-regarded prospects like Allen or Bibee (or eventually Gavin Williams) to allow them to continue their development while also competing on the big league stage. But the team thought Battenfield was the best option to first step in for Civale.

So far, it’s working.

Battenfield hasn’t been told much about what his long-term picture with the Guardians may look like. He’s been focused on each opportunity he’s been given and in the two chances he’s had to toe the rubber, he’s given his club all the reasons to believe he could be handed the ball again.

“I’m competing,” Battenfield said. “I’m going to give everything I have every time I step on the mound. I’ve always been that way and I’m not going to change.”