and it did! Pilkington settled in. Morgan a decent job in relief.
Miller homer; Mercado game winning single while I was moaning the unavailability of Palacios.
Shaw the winner; Clase the save.

Is it my imagination, or are these guys scoring more runs late in the game than they do early in the game?

Nice to see them grab 3-4 from a descent team.

They certainly have had a good recent string of late rallies.
Guardians' offense is a nice alternative to the "3 options" of homer-strikeout-walk that is rather pervasive.

seagull wrote:Is it my imagination, or are these guys scoring more runs late in the game than they do early in the game?

Nice to see them grab 3-4 from a descent team.

I don't think it was your imagination.

Apparently we all had a hallucination last night that this team came back from 8-2 and won 12-9.

And could we be any happier for Naylor?

I had the same dream you had: went to bed it was 5-2 in the 8th; woke up, checked my phone for the final score and it said 12-9. Or at least I thought I was awake. Obviously a dream so I went back to sleep

Watching Naylor racing around the bases on what look like stubby legs is fun. On the grand slam he looked all business; on the 3 run shot he could not contain his happiness

Set various records for most RBI from 9th inning on; etc.
Really nice to see him healthy and back in the lineup; hitting over 300; and then this wild finish for him!

Of course the obscenely awful White Sox defense helped us again; 4 errors 2 of them by Anderson. There's something about Cleveland that intimidates him; he has made 9 errors this season, 3 in one game against the Guardians, and at least one other in the previous series too. The guy playing RF dropped one hit right to him, but did atone with a 3 run homer.

Cleveland's 2 errors didn't help our cause either. Miler with another muff at 2nd base. Tito suggested that's going to be his defensive home so Naylor can play 1st instead of the OF. Need to see Owen improve his defense.

Some good comments there civ.

First off - it's pretty darn apparent now that Naylor will be the 1B vs. all righties. His mobility in the OF makes Franmil look like Straw.

In addition - Naylor is REALLY comfortable at 1B and quite good defensively. Refreshing.

Secondly Gimenez will be playing 2B or SS vs almost everyone. And we know about the zillions of other middle infield options.

To me Owen Miller becomes a utility player who primarily plays 2B but far from stays there on any consistent basis.

Saw a story with Tito placing Naylor Miller and Giminez as daily regulars giving us 4 300 hitters in the infield. Which is pretty amazing!

Which also means that the OF looks pretty thin again with Rosario joining Kwan Straw and Mercado. I assume Palacios will return but another story suggested perhaps Oscar the G will be getting a look soon. I'll post those in Articles.

Blame Naylor for the loss: just one solo homer.

and I guess his defense, too

CHICAGO -- Monday night the White Sox’s defense helped Josh Naylor and the Guardians rally from a six-run deficit to a victory in 11 innings by committing four errors.

Tuesday night the Guardians returned the favor.

Misplays by Naylor and third baseman Jose Ramirez in the sixth inning forced Cal Quantrill to get five outs in the inning. He managed to get four -- that’s one over the limit -- but the fifth didn’t arrive until Gavin Sheets hit a two-run homer to lead the White Sox to a 4-1 victory.
Quantrill entered the sixth trailing, 1-0. He popped up Jose Abreu in foul territory in front of the Cleveland dugout. Naylor, sprinting over from first in pursuit, overran the play and dropped the ball. Quantrill retired Abreu, but Naylor’s error extended his pitch count.

Luis Robert followed with a single, but Yasmani Grandal struck out. After Robert stole second, Sheets sent a foul pop into foul territory near the grandstand by third base for what appeared to be the third out. Ramirez gave chase, put a glove on the ball, but dropped it. The official scorer ruled no play because Ramirez went a long way for the ball, but he’s made catches like that before.

Two pitches later Sheets homered into the right field bleachers for a 3-0 lead.

“It is what it is,” said Quantrill. “They make a lot of great plays, too. That’s how the game folds out. I have to make a better pitch right there with two strikes. That didn’t happen.”

Quantrill said the two misplays didn’t hurt his pitch count.

“My pitch count was low,” said Quantrill, who threw 98 pitches, 71 (72%) for strikes. “I thought some of it was self-induced a little at the end. I started pitching a little more tentatively. No, I was fine.”

Quantrill (1-2, 3.93) scattered 10 hits and allowed four runs over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out three and didn’t walk a batter.

Naylor accounted for the Guardians’ only run as he homered off Lucas Giolito to start the seventh. It was his third homer and ninth RBI in the last two games. Naylor, who had two hits Tuesday, has five homers for the season.

Giolito (2-1, 2.70) continued to dominate the Guardians. In his last nine starts against Cleveland, he’s 4-1 with a 0.92 ERA (six earned runs in 59 innings). He’s struck out 70 and held Cleveland’s hitters to a .181 batting average (39-for-206).

Tuesday night Giolito allowed one run on six hits in seven innings. He struck out five and walked one.

“We’ve seen Goiolito good too much,” said manager Terry Francona.

The White Sox, 1-4 against the Guardians this year, added an insurance run in the seventh on Anderson’s double past first for a 4-1 lead. Anderson, who has been the goat of the 2022 Chicago-Cleveland series to date because of his poor defense, had three hits.

The Guardians tried to rally with two out in the ninth. Franmil Reyes walked and Amed Rosario reached on his third single of the game. When Andres Gimenez was called safe on an infield single to load the bases, the possibility of another rally was starting to percolate. The White Sox, however, challenged the safe call and it was overturned to end the game.

“What I liked it was the same team tonight (as it was Monday) that tried to come back,” said Francona. “Its hard to do that. But all of a sudden we’re going to have bases loaded and it was through effort. I like that and appreciate that. That will serve us well.”

Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the fifth. Quantrill opened the inning with two quick outs, but Josh Harrison, the No. 9 hitter who entered the game hitting .145, interrupted Quantrill’s flow with a double off the wall in left center. Anderson scored him with a single for the first run.

Anderson stole second and continued to third on catcher Austin Hedge’s throwing error. The error didn’t hurt as Yoan Moncada grounded out to end the inning.

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Quantrill and Giolito controlled the game for most of the night.

The Guardians had a couple of scoring chances, but they were ended by double plays. Naylor started the second with a single for his fourth hit in as many at-bats going back to Monday night’s game. Franmil Reyes flied out to center, but Amed Rosario singled to put runners on first and second. Gimenez, however, hit into a double play.

Owen Miller started the fourth with a single and moved to second on Naylor’s ground out to first. Reyes sent a hard grounder to Anderson at short. He threw to Harrison at second to catch Miller too far off the bag. Harrison threw to first to complete the double play.

Robert and Grandal opened the second with singles. But Quantrill retired the next three batters on fly balls to the outfield.

In the third, Anderson beat out an infield single in front of the plate. Moncada sent a hard grounder to Miller at second. He flipped to Ramirez, who was playing short, for the force, but Ramirez dropped the ball. Anderson took off for third, but Ramirez ran him down, after dropping the ball again, and tagged him out before he reached the bag.

Moncada, who stayed at first, was credited with a single. The inning ended when Jose Abreu forced Moncada at second.

The Guardians, despite the loss, have won eight of their last 11 games. The White Sox have won seven of their last eight.

Next: RHP Aaron Civale (1-2, 9.45) vs. undetermined on Wednesday at 2:10 p.m. Bally Sports Great Lakes, WTAM and WMMS will carry the game.

Today's game cancelled due to multiple positive COVID tests.

CHICAGO -- The series finale between the Guardians and the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field was postponed on Wednesday afternoon due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests within Cleveland’s organization.

The team announced that manager Terry Francona, bench coach DeMarlo Hale, other uniformed personnel and some traveling support staff all tested positive Wednesday morning, prompting the postponement. Major League Baseball will provide a rescheduling update when it becomes available.

The Guardians took the rest of the afternoon to coordinate travel plans to Minnesota and continue testing and contact tracing. It’s likely that Francona and Hale will not be with the team for its three-game series at Target Field over the weekend.

As of now, Cleveland is planning to keep its rotation in order for this weekend, assuming no further positive tests pop up. Aaron Civale (who was supposed to pitch on Wednesday) is now scheduled to start the opener against the Twins on Friday night, moving Shane Bieber (Saturday) and Triston McKenzie (Sunday) each back one day.

Anyone on the Forum like to manage the team over the weekend?

joez!