Aug 30, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Cal Quantrill (47) throws a pitch in the first inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
By Zack Meisel
Oct 10, 2022
NEW YORK — Nick Sandlin was built for a postseason series against the Yankees and their larger-than-life right-handed sluggers. Unfortunately for the Guardians, they won’t have the side-winding reliever at their disposal.
Sandlin suffered a muscle strain in his upper back/shoulder during his appearance in Cleveland’s marathon win against Tampa Bay on Saturday. He’s out for the rest of the postseason.
“He would be, what we would hope, a huge weapon,” manager Terry Francona said Monday at Yankee Stadium. “Obviously, that’s not going to happen.”
In his big-league career, Sandlin has allowed only four home runs in 78 1/3 innings. He’s adept at jamming hitters with his sinker and inducing weak contact, and he generates a ton of whiffs on his slider (41.7 percent of swings). That repertoire could have proven valuable against behemoths Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the American League Division Series, especially in the Bronx, where a bloop down either line can sneak over the outfield fence.
Sandlin made a two-week visit to Triple-A Columbus over the summer to correct mechanical issues that were hurting his command. Over the last three months, he posted a 1.08 ERA, with an opponent OPS of .405, thanks to only seven walks in 25 innings.
Cleveland’s bullpen prowess was on full display Saturday, as seven relievers combined for nine scoreless innings to shut down the Rays. The Guardians own MLB’s best relief ERA since the All-Star break.
Nick Sandlin posted a 1.33 ERA in 22 appearances in the season’s second half. (Ken Blaze / USA Today)
Here are the starting pitching matchups for the first three games of the ALDS.
Game 1 on Tuesday: RHP Cal Quantrill vs. RHP Gerrit Cole
Game 2 on Thursday: RHP Shane Bieber vs. LHP Nestor Cortes
Game 3 on Saturday: RHP Triston McKenzie vs. RHP Luis Severino
There are a multitude of scenarios for the rest of the series because of the schedule and Mother Nature. There’s rain in the forecast for Thursday. And there are off days on Wednesday and Friday.
Aaron Civale and Cody Morris are replacing Sandlin and Kirk McCarty on the active roster. Civale will spend Game 1 in the bullpen. The Guardians will reassess how to use him — and Quantrill — after Game 1. Quantrill could return as the starter in Game 4 on regular rest at Progressive Field where, somehow, he’s 14-0 in his career. (He has admitted he doesn’t have a good explanation for it.) There’s plenty to sort out before these teams reach a potential Game 5, but Bieber would be starting on short rest if the Guardians choose that option.
“Nobody wants to put a cart ahead of a horse,” Francona said.
Francona recalled the 2007 AL Championship Series, when Cleveland led his Boston bunch 2-1, and Francona was feeling pressure to tab Josh Beckett on short rest for Game 4. Francona asked Beckett for his input.
“He goes, ‘I’ll do anything you want,'” Francona said. “‘You pitch me on regular rest and I’ll win.’ That was enough for me. That was his way of telling me. He had done it before in his career. Just, that was the end of a long season. He didn’t want to say, ‘I don’t want to do it.’ I held firm. I said, ‘We’re not going to do it.’”
The Red Sox lost Game 4 with knuckleballer Tim Wakefield on the mound, but Beckett threw eight dominant innings in Game 5 to send the ALCS back to Boston, where the Red Sox completed the series comeback.
The off days this week could allow Francona to lean on his bullpen more if the situation dictates such a strategy. Closer Emmanuel Clase recorded four outs in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, and needed only 11 pitches to do so.
There was some twisted irony in the Rays series, with Clase demonstrating why he’s among the league’s elite relievers, whereas the guy Cleveland traded for him, Corey Kluber sauntered off the mound Saturday after surrendering the series-clinching home run to Oscar Gonzalez. The Rangers, who dealt Clase to Cleveland in December 2019, got one inning out of Kluber the following season. Of course, Clase didn’t factor into the equation that season either, as he served a suspension for performance-enhancing drugs. He’s been close to flawless ever since, though.
Clase converted all but four of his 46 save chances this season. The first miscue came in late April at Yankee Stadium, the afternoon New York fans littered the outfield warning track with beer cans.
As the Guardians and Rays recorded zero after zero Saturday, Francona had an idea. As the teams reached the 13th inning in a scoreless deadlock, Francona shouted over to Rays manager Kevin Cash, his longtime friend and coaching disciple, and light-heartedly asked if he wanted to override the league’s rules and start each frame with a runner on second base.
Quantrill’s dad, Paul, pitched for seven teams during his 14 seasons in the majors. He spent a year and a half with the Yankees in the twilight of his career in 2004 and ’05. In 2004, he led the AL with 86 appearances, his fourth consecutive year with at least 80 outings; he led the league all four times.
“I have some pretty cool memories from when he was playing (in New York),” Quantrill said. “That was pretty much a Hall of Fame lineup they were rolling out every day.”
Manager Joe Torre’s batting order that year included Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, John Olerud and Kenny Lofton. That team infamously blew a 3-0 lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox, led by their first-year manager, Francona.
McKenzie was born in New York and spent the first few years of his life in Brooklyn. His dad fell in love with baseball while following the ’80s Yankees. McKenzie grew up a Yankees fan, and met Posada, CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera. He has never met Jeter, his favorite player as a kid.
Sabathia attended Game 2 of the WCS in Cleveland, making a point to watch McKenzie pitch in person. McKenzie treated him to six scoreless innings. McKenzie learned about his presence after the outing.
“Super dope to hear,” he said. “Anytime I have anybody like that around to watch me pitch is really nice, especially when I can go out there and perform well.”
So, how will McKenzie’s dad approach this series between his son’s team and the team that inspired him to love the sport in the first place?
“He’s going to tell me to go dominate,” McKenzie said.
Triston McKenzie shined in his postseason debut Saturday against the Rays. (Ken Blaze / USA Today)
Judge clubbed 62 home runs this season, nearly half as many as the Guardians hit as a team (127).
How will Cleveland’s pitchers attack him?
“Are you going to tell him what I say?” pitching coach Carl Willis said Tuesday. “We don’t want to back down from anybody. And at the same time, we are not going to be stupid. The situation will certainly dictate how we pitch to him, but there are going to be times we have to, and we’ll be prepared to do that. There’s the utmost respect for everyone who puts on a major-league uniform, but certainly having a historic, record-breaking year like he has had, he deserves a little more attention.”
