Lefty Logan Allen is on the bump tonight for the Guardians. The Guardians’ bullpen could use a rest, so hopefully Allen can give them another quality start tonight to limit the bullpen innings.
Cleveland has been scoring more runs in the past three series and two of the hottest hitters in this stretch have been Josh Naylor who is 16 for 29 raising his batting average from .226 to .271 and Will Brennan who is 16 for 33 raising his batting average from .204 to .267.
Since his blown save in New York against the Mets on May 19th, James Karinchak, in nine appearances, has not given up a run lowering his ERA from 5.03 to 3.71.
The Cleveland Guardians’ offensive performance has been improving as of late, but still rank 29th in Major League Baseball with a team OPS of .651 and averaging only 3.62 runs per game. Their struggles are even more pronounced at home, where they hold a team slash line of .227/.296/.339 and manage to score a mere 2.9 runs over 29 games.
Among the Guards organization’s prospects, Logan Allen holds the eighth rank, but he has been facing challenges this season. His performance metrics place him in the 27th percentile in barrel percentage, 29th percentile in expected batting average (xBA), 35th percentile in expected slugging percentage (xSLG), and 45th percentile in expected earned run average (xERA). Allen possesses a repertoire of four different pitches: fastball, sweeper, changeup, and cutter. Unfortunately, his fastball has been particularly vulnerable, resulting in a .241 batting average against him and four home runs. It will be intriguing to observe his pitching performance in his inaugural encounter against the Astros.
The Houston Astros have been underperforming as a team at the plate, ranking 20th in MLB with a .715 OPS and averaging 4.53 runs per game. However, their performance on the road has been slightly better, with a .726 OPS and an average of 4.63 runs scored in their 30 away games so far. One standout player is designated hitter Yordan Alvarez, who has been performing like a superstar. He boasts an impressive .274/.386/.582 slash line with 17 home runs, 55 RBI, and 41 runs scored.
Pitcher Cristian Javier has been delivering an excellent performance throughout the season, as evidenced by his Baseball Savant page. He ranks in the 82nd percentile in walk percentage, 81st percentile in chase rate, 76th percentile in whiff percentage, and 69th percentile in strikeout percentage. Javier utilizes a four-pitch arsenal consisting of a fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup. Among his pitches, the curveball has been particularly effective, with opposing hitters managing only a .125 batting average and a .250 slugging percentage against it.
Javier faced the Guardians twice last season, recording a perfect 2-0 record in 13.1 innings pitched. In those outings, he allowed six runs on 14 hits, including one hit by pitch, while issuing three walks and tallying seven strikeouts.
On paper, these teams are on two completely different levels throughout the season thus far as the Guardians are -29 right now while the Astros are +60 in runs scored versus runs given up. Looking at the offensive output as of late, there is a closer difference between the two clubs as Houston is averaging 4.86 runs in their previous 14 games while Cleveland is scoring four runs in their last 13 games played. Houston does extremely well on the road as they are 18-12 away from Minute Maid Park while Cleveland is just 13-16 inside of Progressive Field. The Houston Astros record overall is better, but the Guardians are playing better over the last 3 series matchups.
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