With Guardians slumping, Francona stands by his guys

CLEVELAND -- As impressive as Peyton Battenfield was in the series opener against the Twins, it was the same story for the Guardians as it has been over the last few weeks: The offense couldn’t provide him any support.

The Guardians mustered just three hits on Friday night in a 2-0 loss to Minnesota at Progressive Field. It marked Cleveland’s 12th loss in its last 17 games. In each of its last five contests, the team has plated three runs or fewer, as its record dropped to 4-16 in such games this season.

The Guardians have opened each game during this stretch hoping that they have finally reached the night that will end their dreadful drought. But Minnesota’s Bailey Ober gave the offense no room to heat up.

“Right now, if a pitcher has the ability to spin it or change speeds in any count, it's giving us fits,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “And we're going to have to earn getting pitches to hit in the zone, because we're trying to hit everything."

Francona talked at length prior to the start of Friday’s game about the rut in which his offense finds itself. The biggest question: How do Cleveland’s hitters break out of this?

“I hope it ends with us swinging the bats really well,” Francona said. “The best thing I know is to work hard, and then try to take what you work on into the game. Sometimes you start trying to do more. That usually gets you into trouble. At times now, we’re trying to hit everything. And I get it, but it’s too hard. So, we’re going to have to be, at times, patient enough to earn pitches to hit, and not try to hit every speed and every location, because that’s just too hard.”

Francona continued: “Whether you get a good pitch on the first pitch of the at-bat or the sixth, being ready to hit it, the pitch you’re looking for, the speed you’re looking for or the area you’re looking for -- and if you don’t get it, trying to be disciplined enough not to swing at the other stuff.”

Right now, no one in the Guardians’ lineup is hitting consistently. It becomes even more glaring when the batters near the top of the order -- like shortstop Amed Rosario -- are the ones in the deepest slumps. But despite his slow start, the team isn’t doubting that a breakout is just around the corner.

In his two previous seasons with Cleveland, Rosario was likewise not productive in the early months of the year. In 2021, he hit just .179 with a .555 OPS in the first 22 games of the season. Last year, he batted .211 with a .523 OPS in April and .259 with a .641 OPS in May.

“It’s easy to forget [that he gets off to slow starts] because when we see him from like middle of May on, he’s so good,” Francona said. “He just has a hard time kind of finding his footing. The good part is, once he does, he’s usually at the top of the league in hits. And the way he runs the bases, that’s a good combination. There’s some more swing and miss in his game right now than you will see when he starts feeling better.”

Regardless of the fact that the Guardians are hopeful this skid is close to ending, the problem is that the offense is in a rough spot with -- for now -- no end in sight. Last year through 32 games, the Guardians’ offense ranked fourth in batting average (.253) and seventh in OPS (.722) in the Majors. Through the first 32 games this season, the club is 29th in batting average (.224) and 30th in OPS (.636).

So, how does a team experiencing offensive woes balance giving players time to work out of their struggles and trying to find other options?

“As far as our position players go, they’re here,” Francona said. “And sometimes, if you’re supposed to be patient or if you need to be patient, you’d better be patient or you’re going to mess up. If we thought we had something better to serve our team, we would do it. Again, we’ve called up a lot of young guys. We’re not just going to keep calling guys up.

“These are our guys. We’ve got to run them out there, because the quicker they find it the better.”