Guardians notch another embarrassing loss to the Twins

If you’re reading this, I sincerely hope it’s because you didn’t watch the game.

I mean, I had to watch the game because I sold my soul to Covering the Corner. You had a choice, and I hope for your sake that you chose to do something more fulfilling or productive.

Because you know who wasn’t productive Tuesday night? The Cleveland Guardians.

After eking out a much-needed win in the afternoon matinee of Tuesday’s doubleheader, Cleveland surrendered to Minnesota in the night cap, suffering a 6-0 defeat 24 hours after being handed a humiliating 11-1 loss to their division rival the previous night.

I’m not going rag too much on Konnor Pilkington, who has become the Guardians’ de fact spot starter for doubleheaders, even though he couldn’t make it through five innings. In his five previous starts, he averaged 5.73 BB/9 and carried a 4.50 ERA. It was more of the same against the Twins, as Pilkington gave up eight hits, three walks, and four earned runs over 4.1 innings.

And I won’t dwell too much on a Guardians bullpen that suddenly looks more vulnerable than ever, complete with a revolving door of call-ups from Triple-A Columbus.

Because no matter how many runs your pitchers give up, you’re not going to win any games if you can’t even score a single run. All Cleveland could muster were five hits and one walk Tuesday night. They only struck out four times all night, so it wasn’t like Twins starting pitcher Josh Winder was throwing filth. The Guardians were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, so they had opportunities to put runs on the board. But of course they squandered them.

Not much else to say here. Seven straight games scoring three runs or less. And their record in those seven games is 1-6. Imagine that. We can only hope this is a funk they’ll snap out of at some point, but until then, brace yourself for more losses.