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Caminero and Diaz hit those homers off pitchers who didn’t have much left to give. Even with the rainout, a blowout loss, and some offdays, Cade Smith and Hunter Gaddis had been worked extremely hard over the last couple of weeks. The two of them pitched in nine of the Guardians’ 11 playoff games over 17 days. Nine appearances in 17 days would be a lot for a reliever in the regular season; to pitch so often in postseason conditions was that much harder. Vogt’s decision to lift Parker Messick after two innings in Game Five was a factor in the team’s Game Six loss. Vogt got 13 2/3 innings from Messick in four starts, turned his #3, Foster Griffin, into a bulk guy, and buried his #4, Tanner Bibee. He simply went too far in turning games over to his bullpen this month, needing to have more faith in what was a good rotation. The quality of the Guardians’ core and the weakness of the AL Central means Vogt will likely have more chances to get it right.
Debating the pitching decisions of a manager whose team scored three runs a game, and two runs a game over the final five contests, seems a little beside the point. There’s probably nothing Stephen Vogt could have done to change the fact that the Guardians didn’t hit the ball hard enough to put runs on the board. After having no barreled balls in Game Five, they had just one, DeLauter’s double off Peralta, in Game Six. For the series, they slugged .325 with ten extra-base hits, and until last night, the Rays had taken away the Guardians’ walks: 11 allowed in the first five games.
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