Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio networking. Guardians Weekly is front
to you by Progressive helping Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance. Hi,
everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse along with you from Phoenix,
Arizona and Chase Field, where the Guardians are taking on the Diamondbacks this weekend
in a three game series. Good show lined up for you today. As
always, we'll have our weekend review that comes your way shortly later on in
the show. We'll hear from David Fry, who had a big night on
Thursday night against the Padres, making his first start behind the plate in a
Major league game as a catcher. And we'll also hear from Rob Sortfolio talking
about catching, specifically super prospect bow Naylor, who is on his way to
join the big club after a good start at Triple A Columbus this season.
We'll also visit with Jose Ramirez and Josh Bell, as well as relief pitcher
Sam Henches. That's all coming up a little bit later on in our show,
But first the weekend review, and after a Monday op day, the
Guardians opened up play on the West Coast with a six to three loss against
the Padres on Tuesday night, and they follow that up with a tough one
on Wednesday night, the Padres shutting out Cleveland five nothing. That set the
table for Thursday night as the Guardians were trying to salvage the finale of the
series, and they didn't waste any time getting the offense, going three singles
to start the first inning, and then Josh Naylor stepped in with a thirteen
game hit streak, going Weathers is working in a hurry. Here it comes
swung on line drive basit into center field that'll score him, and us Grazzario
is coming home. Grisham's throws to second and it's a two nothing Cleveland lead,
and the tour to hitting Josh Naylor now with a fourteen game hitting streak
and gives Cleveland a two nothing lead as he rifles one back up the middle.
And now Josh Nayler leads the ball club with fifty army eyes as they
have scored two runs on four line drive singles. Later on in that first
inning, two on two outs and David Fry getting the start behind the plate,
came to the plate looking to do damage. The pitch swing out a
drill, deep lift down the line. Gone, a laser three run.
The home run down the left field line by David Frye. It is five
nothing Cleveland, and the Boo Birds are out at Petco Park. Folks.
You couldn't say going, going, gone, You could simply say gone.
You will never see a ball leave a ballpark quicker than that missile down the
left field line. What a moment for fry as he collects his first major
league home run by San Diego's power packed offense answered in the bottom of the
first inning Manny Machado with a three run home run that made it five three,
and in the second the Guardians, though they would keep things rolling offensively,
Miles Straw reaching bass and then Jose Ramirez delivered Ryan Weathers long look in
now he nods in agreement, pitch clank in four, Here comes swung On
smashed a third fairball right over the bank down that I feel line kicks into
the corner on his way to second. Is Ramirez in? The score is
Straw and at six to three Cleveland. How about that? The last pitch
Ryan Weathers made tonight was a fastball to Jose Ramirez, and he smoked a
double over the bag at third, giving him nineteen doubles and thirty nine RBIs.
Cleveland has a six to three lead. Bob Melvin makes a call to
the bullpen. We're only in the second. The Padres pulled it within a
run with two in the third, but in the fourth inning, Josey stayed
hot. Here's the two old pitch swung on. There's a slow tapper third
base charging Machado and it rolls under his bare hand. All hands are safe.
Brennan has scored from third and the Guardians now lead at seven to five,
and it goes an infield single with an RBI for Jose Ramirez for Hosie.
That's run bat at in number forty on the season, as his big
stretch continues. San Diego again made it a one run game with a run
in the fifth, and they were looking for more, but David Fry and
his first start behind the plate gave the Guardians a boost with his defense.
The pitch runner goes pitches outside corner, strike, throw to third. He
safe for the head first slide. It was close. Soto taking off and
gets his seventh steel with a head first slide. In the third, Fry
made a great throw in a bang bang play. See if Cleveland challenges it,
they will. Tito wants them to put on the earmuffs. Here comes
the call. The call in the field is overturned. The runner of alt
Cleveland the frames fir challenge. Hey, what more can David fry do in
his first major league start? Now forty thousand other umpires to disagree with the
people in New York, But the call is overturned. That goes as a
caught stealing. So again, sometimes you can be too aggressive. And Juan
Soto trying to steal third thrown up by David Frye leading off the eighth inning,
Frye was at it again with the bat. The two one pitch swung
on. This is hit pretty well to deep left center field on the run.
As Chrisham at the wall, he leaps and he got it and dropped
it, slams up against the wall, picks it up, throws it in
in a double for Frye. Chrisham looked like he robbed him of a home
run. A running, leaping grab at the wall and left center got a
glove on it, but as he slammed into the wall, the ball fell
to the track and David Frye almost a two homer game, and then Andrey
Semenez provided a little insurance, knocking in the Guardians catcher Nick Martinez is ready,
the right hander deals and Andre Simenez. It's a liner to write,
thanks of a shit Fry around third, he is coming home. Tatis's throat
of the plate no chance. Now the throat of second in sliding is Himenez
and the Guardians get a mammoth two out RBI single to right by Andre Simenez
and Cleveland now leads at eight to six. And Fernando Tantis made a bad
decision there trying to throw out Fry with two down. He had no chance
and it enabled Himenez to take second. And then in the ninth the Manuel
Closse finished things up as he was looking to secure a much needed win for
Cleveland. Now the old one swung on grounded the second, Himenez drops twine,
gets up, throws to first Bogie and the Guardians salvage the finale.
They get five in the first and David Frye has the best knight of his
young major league career, lead in Cleveland to an eight to six win.
After the ball game, Guardians manager Terry Francona talked about the decision to give
fry a shot at starting behind the plate. I thought he kind of deserved
the chance to play play a game, and I thought tonight made sense.
Boy, you sure helped us. I mean, he made some good throws,
he caught a in today's game, a really long, arduous game,
and he helped us offensively. That was that was good. Good for him
and it really helped us, certainly, one of those nice stories of the
season. David Frye, trying to make his mark at the major league level,
had a big, big night against the Padres on Thursday night, well
Friday series opener against the diamond Backs. The Guardians came up short, five
to one, and they will head into play this weekend trying to get it
rolling here against a very good diamond Backs ball club seven ten local time,
first pitch on Saturday night, ten ten back in Cleveland, and then the
road trip concludes on Sunday afternoon with a four ten first pitch here in Phoenix.
Stay with us when we come back. We'll hear from David fry that's
next on the Cleveland Clinic. Guardians Radio and EPOM Progressive Knows we're all trying
to save right now, Hey, at least we're still enjoying baseball on a
Saturday night, right, even if it is t ball. Yeah, the
tickets to the majors are just so expensive now, and who knows, maybe
we're seeing a pro in the making. Sure you need twenty years now?
Is he safe? Boo to substint the ump is only fourteen? We don't
really do that. Oh my bad. You're doing a great job. Progressive
offers you satings without sacrifice, So save big one. You buddle Holme and
Auto for there's a casualty insurance company affiliates another introvers. Here's Morgan's pitch Bunnett
right in front of home plate, shoveling at home as Morgan tag play he's
out at home. Cruz sliding in is tagged out by fry On. A
really nice play by Eli Morgan as the bunt was pushed out in front of
home plate and Morgan really stayed cool on that and made sure that he made
it an accurate flip to home plate so that the pondres try and squeeze one
across if they can, and it's unsuccessful. Nice play by Eli Morgan and
fry On the other end two with a tag. Jim Rosenow's back with you
from Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. It's Guardians Weekly. We just heard
the highlights from Fry's big night in San Diego on Thursday night at the plate
and defensively in his first start in the big leagues as a catcher. And
we caught up with him here in Phoenix on Friday before the game and he
said, while it's not his primary position, he did feel comfortable as a
catcher and was happy to have the opportunity to show what he could do.
Yeah, it was. It was a blast. And just I've had some
opportunities to catch Layton games and gotten a little comfortable and that and gotten some
extra inning games, so high leverage situations, and so I was excited to
be able to catch a full one and luckily we came out with a win.
I know we've we've talked before about that development. And you have time
here to work with one of the great catching coaches in the game. And
what can Sandy Alamar do for your game, especially if you have some time
to work on that. Yeah, he's awesome. I mean, just even
in spring training, just getting to work with him. He's such a positive
guy. But just the little things that he picks up in a game that
other people just don't see. He's he's just really smart and knows how to
coach the position. And he's helped me a bunch. And then Caymans Andino
both to like they helped me out a bunch, and whenever I'm back there,
they're like the first ones to be like, tell me, great job
and stuff. So we got a great support system here. So you get
a chance to come to the plate in the first inning and there's a couple
of runs in already, and you crush one down the left field line,
and just that feeling, first major league home run? What was that like?
Yeah, it went by really quick. I mean it went out and
I was at home plate and still hadn't even like realized that I hit my
first home run. And then I'm already like getting ready to put the gear
back on and get ready to catch the next inning. So it kind of
took me a little while to realize what had happened. But it was a
pretty awesome feeling. And we were talking earlier yourself and also Tyler Freeman infrequent
playing time, but it seems like when you have a chance to play in
getting at Bad, it's a decent at Bad. And how hard is that
at the major league level to have success when you don't have that opportunity to
hop Yeah, it's it's really tough. You just have to be patient and
just ready to go whenever you go out there. And Tyler does an amazing
jobs. We were talking about it and it seems like every time he comes
up he hits a line drive somewhere. But our our hitting coaches do a
great job to make sure we're prepared if we're to go into a game,
We're not just going in cold, like we're ready to go and have a
chance to hopefully help the team. And you helped the team on a night
where they had dropped two straight and looking to get off to a good start
and team wise, how important was that to strike early last night and get
off to a good start. Yeah, it was big. I mean San
Diego was playing really well and they got a deep lineup and can really swing
it, so it was kind of big to get out and get a lead,
and we kind of needed to win after a couple of losses and hopefully
we can kind of keep that momentum going, David, I know what your
wife, Rebecca had a chance to see that in person in San Diego last
night. And as someone who has really had to grind to get here and
she's been on that path with you, explain how long she's been with you,
gone through the ups and downs that this game can present, and what
it meant to have her there last night. Yeah, it's so cool.
I mean, she was not going to even be there. Originally she was
on a flight and then she changed it last minute so she could stay for
the game. And but yeah, she's been with me throughout the pretty much
my whole minor league career, and she's just so supportive. I mean,
it's such a tough life on them, on the wives that they have it
tough. I mean, we're all over the place, and we don't really
have a home for the season. You're just kind of all over the place.
And she's just so great to me and always supportive. And whether I'm
over four or four four, she's always just there to tell me a great
job and keep going. And she's been great and so the fact that she
got to be there last night was really special. David, congratulations on last
night. Thanks love for coming by, appreciate it. That's David Frye and
a great story. And you always, I think you root for players like
fry who are really just battling to stay in the big leagues and do what
they can. And he's had some really important bass hits and contributions to the
Guardians here the last month or so. We're gonna stay on that catching theme
because with the roster shuffle on Friday, bow Naylor is on his way to
join the ball club here in Phoenix. And Nailer has been on the radar
as a potential catcher for this ball club for quite some time, one of
the top catching prospects in all of minor league baseball. And we checked in
with Rob Sortfolio, the director of player development for the Guardians, and he
talked about Naylor and his development and some of the things that he's been working
on to improve his game while he's been at Triple A Columbus. Yeah.
Well, you know, I think this dates back to even some of our
conversations last year, Rosie, when you know, he had the difficult year
in twenty twenty one in Akron and that offseason really dedicated himself to Okay,
here's from a performance wise where I'm struggling, and he partnered up with our
staff, especially our hitting group, and got to work. And he obviously
did what he did last year and kind of built upon that this past offseason
and just has done about as good of a job handling adversity and using that
as a catapult to just find ways to improve. And he's just i think
pretty impressively for a guy that's still just twenty three years old in Triple A
performing it as well as he did last year to be able to still use
some of his off season in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, bring
that back into the full this pass off season, just continue to push himself
to get better and better, and it's just been really impressive to see him
continue to do so. I mean, you know, he's doing what he's
always done, getting on base at a high clip. You know, he's
a guy that takes walks, doesn't chase, really knows the strikes and and
can obviously hit for some power. And then you know, this year,
I think something that's been really impressive with him is he's really started to limit
some of the strikeouts, even more so than he's done in years past.
He's never been a high strikeout guy, but that's even continue to improve,
which just shows some of the maturity of how he's improved with his approach and
just understanding of how pitch are trying to get him out and just becoming a
complete hitter. So a lot of credit goes to Bow just with how he
goes about his business, his desire to to not worry as much about the
things around him and focus on the stuff that he can control to get better,
and just a huge credit to him and the staff around him to be
able to continue to find ways to improve. Then on the defensive side,
again, you know, this is a guy that has really been towards the
top of all of minor league baseball in some of the stuff he can do
from a receiving standpoint, behind the behind the plate. You know, some
new wrinkles this year in Triple A with with abs, and you know,
learning how that impacts the way in which you call a game and support pitchers
has been has been a fun hurdle. But he's just continued to try and
refine his game and work on the details to go from a really good player
to a great player. Um and so I think a lot of credit goes
to bow It's farm director Robs her Folio talking about the emerg of Boone Naylor,
who again is on his way and should be active Saturday, and the
word is that he'll most likely catch the ball game on Sunday. We'll see
how that all transpires, but certainly Naylor getting that opportunity now after a very
good start at Triple A. Stay with us when we come back. We'll
hear from Jose Ramirez and Josh Bell. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians
Radio Network. Now the payoff swung on himmerd D Tiller Field forget about it,
onto the home run ports down the three one, swinging a drive,
Hi Date till off center, oh back and gone and it's three nothing.
Jose ramires. Now the payoff pitch too. Ramirez swung in hit high,
hit deep to right, Hawai back gone again. Jose Ramirez, Well,
I'm majestic. Blast to the seats in right and the first three homer game
in a Jose ramires his career and he plays every evening of every day and
plays like us his last We'll see that many great players play like that.
I mean his enthusiasm for the game is every night. Nice to see him
have that success. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse back with you
in Phoenix, Arizona, where the Guardians are taking on the Diamondbacks this weekend.
And one of the hot hitters for the Guardians right now is Jose Ramirez.
He's been hot for a while and we had a chance to Ki match
up with him recently after his home run barrage on the last homestand where he
had three home runs in one game and reached a milestone with his two hundredth
career home run and passed Travis Hafner on the all time Cleveland list for home
runs, moving in a ninth place. So some big stuff going on for
Hosy And with translation helped from Aggie Rivero, he asked him about the offense
as a whole and some of the keys that have led to that turnaround offensively
for the Guardians. And this is the result of unity. You know,
we've been together through all the ups and downs when things are not easy for
us, and now that we're getting good results is showing that we've been together
through through all the situations. And I'm really happy for the guys. And
whether it's fair or not. I know a lot of people say, as
as you go the offense goes, is that added pressure to you or do
you embrace that and really welcome that? Um Oney, I don't think it's
pressure, But he's a reality. I mean, obviously, when I know
when I'm getting good results and I'm able to put a good energy running the
basis and during the game, I feel the team does a little bit better.
So he's not a pressure, but he's a reality that, you know,
I'm happy to live with. I know Tito has said it, Victor
Rodriguez has said it that it is hard for you to get good pitches to
hit. Uh, how much of a challenge is that for you? And
how difficult is it to lay off the stuff where where they're just trying to
pitch you away? Oh well, it really does. That's a reality.
The pictures, I think they take care of themselves in that way, not
trying to pitch too much to me. And I'm aware of that. So
my approach is Kinnel like, look for the good pitches and make sure I'm
able to execute those, because i know I'm not getting many of those good
pitchers to hit Jose Ramirez joining us along with Aki Rivero and Jose a milestone
for you. Two hundred home runs, So you're surpassed that against Boston and
what does that mean to you? And to have it happened on a night
where you hit three home runs total Hellman too, uh means another personal goal
of mind. You a thing up for the opportunity to hit two hundred homers,
and that's one of the goals that I had in my mind, and
it's very special. Also doing it in the night that I hit for the
first time, I also make career three homers. So I think that was
a very special night. And it happens for the team, the only team
that you've played for and that you've committed to. And and it seemed like
when you made that commitment last year that that these types of things we were
maybe on your mind in the back of your mind. Is that the case
for you that it's so important to have it happened here? And if so,
why he then known fellow people. And that's a satifaction you get as
a player. I mean, I think I just thought of that as a
kid, if I ever wanted to be in the mayors. I wanted to
have play only for one organization and have all my stats and all my records
recorded into one organization. So you know, this is the city that welcomed
me, this is where my daughter was born. So I think there a
lot of factors that playing to me. Wanted to be here and obviously be
able to achieve all those stats within the same team. And when you first
came up and reach the major leagues, I don't know if anyone could have
foreseen the amount of power you've hit with. Um what inside you said,
Hey, I could hit for power if I do certain things to develop One
was like the huego I say, sink, I mean I was when I
came here, you know. I mean you don't have to be six to
five or anything like that to just hit homers. As soon as you have
quake hands, I think you're able to get homers. And my kids,
I'm able to always have quake hands, be able to get the barrel of
the bats. So I think from time to time, I always thought,
if I keep working out and getting stronger and the skills that I have,
I will be able to hit significant homers. And in closing the night,
you hit the three home runs and even the the at bats after that,
it seemed like your teammates were having maybe more fun than you were. What
does that mean to you when you see how much fun they have with you
and as a team, especially in a winning situation, It's beautiful. It's
a beautiful feeling having that support from them, And I felt like they were
cheering from here and that for a back to try to get that four homer.
So it's very beautiful and I feel really thankful for the support the o
for me a day to day basis. It was a great night. Josie,
thanks so much. I thank you, Thank you much. At Jose
Ramirez with translation help from Augie Rivero. Another key to the offense for Cleveland
has been the emergence of Josh Bell, who's starting to pick things up at
the plate, a real nice stretch with some power and also hitting for average
and like several of the Guardians hitters, he says, there's a couple of
keys that have led to the team's recent offensive surge. Well, I think
each pitcher is going to make mistakes. It's it's capitalizing on them. It's
not falling off those pictures. When when you get those opportunities. When you're
not going well, um you get a festiball right down the middle, you
fallow it off. And when you're going right, um that festiball right down
the middles and a gap somewhere over the fence. So I think he's just
capitalizing. And when you see more and more people capitalizing, that's when the
runs start adding up. And for you, is it mechanical adjustments or approach
adjustments that that you're making at the plate? Yeah? Um ready for the
most part, I've been saying true all season. And Lefty was just after
I got back from the paternity leave, sat down with with s Bone and
Bell and looked at some video and started looking at, you know, balls
that I had driven to the opposite field gap and um, you know throughout
my career, and saw some some differences then you know, the swings I
was putting out this season and then some last season, and it seems like
there was some some overarching themes of what I need to do to put myself
in position to really drive the baseball the way I wanted to. So we
made some tweaks that day and ended up striking out that night. I pinch
hit, struck out on three pitches, but I had two sliders foul,
which is something that I hadn't done virtually all season pulling balls foul. M
So I knew my badpath was in a better place. And you know,
if pitchers were gonna make them stay, I was gonna be able to capitalize
on it. And the last few games I've been able to do that.
So they've been able to help you. And unfortunately, you've been with a
couple of different teams here in a short period of time, and here we
are in June. Does it take a little while to get that good relationship
going with a new hitting coach and really believe, hey, they're finding some
stuff here that can be helpful. Well, no, I think that,
you know, the relationship starts. You know, I got a call in
the offseason, and you know we've been going back and forth and you know,
worked all spring, and I think that you know, for the most
part, you get to this, you know, time period in your career.
You know, you've heard a lot, you've tried a lot, some
things work, some things don't. Well, you know, sitting sitting there
watching videos kind of just a conversation, there wasn't really Hey, I got
something for you. It was just like, hey, let's look at this
all right, let's look at this. Well, what do you think about
this? M? And I was like, oh, like you see that
right there, and they were like, yeah, just try it out to
what it looks like. And you know, the numbers we track everything in
the cage. The numbers kind of skyrocketed and started to hitting the bowl harder,
and you know, batting practice, I always for the most part hit
homers, and you know in the cage, I always feel good. But
to see the results in the game, um shows that you know, I'm
on the right path and hopefully there's more damage to be had. You mentioned
switch hitting before and working from the right side left side. When did you
start and why? Yeah? So and they started at five. My dad
just had me kind of switch back and forth m from five basically to fourteen
until I got to high school. And that's when I started going with matchups.
So you know, righty red handed pitchers going left handed and vice versa.
So I got a lot of reps as a kid, and you know
I was able to, you know, keep it up through through Pro Bowl.
You make it look easy, Hazy makes it look easy. U but
how much extra work is it? And you have to be careful not to
be doing too much because you're you're hitting from both sides. Yeah, I
mean, I mean, you know, depends on what you need. UM.
I feel like at times I can go into the cage and take twenty
swings and feel good from both sides, and you know, some days it
feels like I need two hundred um. But um, for the most part,
when when I find something that works um from from each side, I
can have my cues and kind of ride that wave with that um and and
really trusted and for the for the course of the season. So UM.
It kind of took me a while to to find something that worked lefty,
um, but right handed for the last few years, it's just really simplified.
I feel like I'm on time, and you know, you know,
when they are mistakes, I feel like I do damage. Um And if
not, you know, I can tip my cap. So you know,
if I can get into that place, um, left handed, that's when
I think both sides will really pop. I know you weren't here long,
but what's it like coming back here to San Diego? No, it's cool,
Um, you know, it's always a place that I enjoyed visiting,
um, you know, you know, like me on the West Coast and
whatnot, and whether you don't really have to worry about rain or anything thing.
But it's cool to see some old teammates over there and you know,
compete against him. Thanks Josh, appreciate it. You got it. That's
first baseman DH Josh Bell and always fun to talk hitting and some other stuff
too with Josh. Has fascinating that he started pinch hitting at the age of
our not pinch hitting, switch hitting at the age of five, and carried
that through all the way to the major leagues. Stay with us when we
come back. We'll hear from relief pitcher Sam Henches. That's next on the
Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Two down, nailored, second one nothing Cleveland
Bill rifles one to write down the line. It hits inside the line,
fareball, rickches into the corner. Nailor will score Bell with a head first
slide in an RBI double must grow that very abbreviated wind up man pitch and
the swinging a high drive into deep bright field down the line. It goes
and gone, and the hot stretch continues. Jo Us Bell raising his right
hand in the air, circling the bases as bell. It's his sixth home
run, a towering drive right down that right feel line. That's now three
homers in his last eleven ball games. Progressive presents spectator tips from Flow,
who knows nothing about sports. First, talk about retired players with reverence,
even if they did crush your dreams when they played. Next whatever, people
get excited. Just yell it's about time works in any situation. Finally,
when someone mentions protecting the QB, tell them how Progressive protects you round the
clock. That has nothing to do with sports. Noctro anyway, buddle your
home and auto to get round the clock protection with Progressive. Progressive casual teas
trans Company abiliates another introversion. Sam sends it the belt, lets it fly,
swings curveball got him. WHOA, What a welcome sight to have Sam
Henches coming out of that bullpen, and the big lefty responded with a couple
of strike outs. Hench just third bay side of the rubber hands belt high.
He lets it fly and Henderson takes straight three call pounded the inside corner
with that sinker at ninety seven miles an hour, Hench just gets out of
it Otani at second, Duffy at first, two down, eighth inning,
five to four Guardians Henches, he lets it rip and Mike Ford swings and
missus three fastballs. Thanks for coming, Sam Henches does it again. Welcome
back its Guardians Weekly him Rosenhouse back with you from Phoenix where the Guardians are
taking on the Diamondbacks this weekend, and we welcome back in to our final
segment of the show this week. And a little while back, we had
a chance to catch up with relief pitchers Sam Henches. We actually had to
stay out here in Arizona at the end of spring training because he had a
shoulder injury and it was taking some time for that to calm down and get
him built back up again, so he missed the first month plus of the
season that when we caught up with him recently, talked about how he's feeling
now back in the swing of things as a major contributor to that Guardians Bullpen,
I think they've been really good kind of easing me back into things,
so to say. But I feel like at this point now I've been with
the team for a little bit over a month, and I think things are
kind of getting back to normal as far as utilization of me out of the
bullpen, kind of three out of four back to back, stuff like that.
Feel physically good and ready to continue stuff wise, in command wise,
is that getting close to where you'd like it to be? Yeah, I
think this stuff has been good. The command. I feel like I've been
walking a few too many guys as of late, but just yeah, I
just got a limit that and continue being aggressive in the strike zone. You
are in such a good role at the end of last season and through the
postseason. Is it hard not to compare yourself to that right now and when
maybe it's still hat a little work to do a little bit, But I
think it's it's more of one of those things that you just kind of want
to build off of and kind of not really getting back to what I did
last year, but just kind of building off of what I did last year
and through the kind of the learning experience and development as a reliever and just
kind of continuing to build off last year. And what was the biggest key
you think that making that adjustment to being a top shelf relead pitcher. I
think it was, I mean, for me last year It was just being
aggressive with pitches and filling up the zone, and I think that leads to
a lot of success because as a pitcher, you're you're gonna win the battle
seventy percent of the time. So just being aggressive in this zone, making
them putting it, put the ball in play, just kind of letting the
defense handle it. Sam, you started the season on the injured list.
Never easy. How difficult was that in spring training when you learned that,
hey, I'm gonna have to be patient here and work to build it back
up again. It was definitely frustrating, But I think the timing of it
and everybody kind of having my back with it, just saying something to the
trainers that early in the season. It's never never a good sign or it's
never a lot of fun. But everybody has been really good throughout the entire
process and tried to limit limit my days on the injured list, and it's
definitely nice to be back. I think sometimes it's easy for us to forget
what that's like when you're part of a team and they go start playing the
season. How tough was that from the mental side when when that happened and
you were still rehabbing it was definitely very tough. I mean, we were
out in Arizona, rehabbing out there and watching watching the games on TV every
night. Wasn't something that I thought I'd ever be doing, but it was.
It was, I mean, it was. It was a good process.
I learned a lot about myself and about my body and shoulders specifically,
and hopefully try to avoid that in the future. And when when you look
at the bullpen, there's been some great nights, there's been some nights where,
uh, it's gotten away, and it seems like that's for every team
in baseball. Are there some challenges pitch clockwise, especially at the end of
games for relievers who are trying to get it done and be at their best.
I don't think it's necessarily the pitch clock thing, um, But like
you said, I mean, it happens with every bullpen and in the big
leagues, and I mean everything, all the mistakes just um seem to magnify
out of the bullpen because it's usually in big situations at the end of the
game, um, high leverage. But I mean, all the guys in
our bullpen have been really good this year, kind of turning the page.
If it was a bad one and and we ended up losing the game.
Just kind of moving on to the next day and just continuing to put in
the work and see the results. And with that said, you see nights
like Wednesday night at a real nice bounce back night, and it are those
of the type of nice to get you fired up about what this team could
do to get on a role, definitely, And I think our bullpen is
one of our strengths and our pitching staff is one of our strengths as a
team. So just to see that we can do that and we just I
think we just need to do it a little bit more consistently as a bullpen
group. And once we do that and become consistent with those good nights and
have more good nights and bad nights, I think we'll be in a really
good spot. Sam, always good to have you on. Thanks, thank
you. Well, that's gonna do it for this edition of Guardian's Weekly.
Thanks so much for tuning in. As always, thanks to Brian Botsey for
his help and putting together our show each week. Next weekend, we'll join
you from back home at Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland as the Guardians have a
homestand coming up with Oakland starting Tuesday night, and then the Brewers follow the
Athletics to town with the three game weekend series next weekend. So until then,
this is Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Guardians Weekly has been brought to you by
Progressive helping Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance