The Guardians play baseball today

The Guardians didn’t play yesterday, which probably raised their runs per game.

Cleveland Guardians news

Guardians lead Major League Baseball in close, 1-run games: ‘pressure creates diamonds’ | Akron Beacon Journal
For teams with good records, leading the league in close games is typically a sign that things are going to go south. You can only win so many nailbiters before the baseball gods roll the dice the other way; good teams will blow people out once in a while. It’s kind of a sign of fool’s gold.

That’s not quite the case with the Guardians. If you want to be optimistic, we could say that it means the Guardians have maintained a lot of close games while the offense has looked the worse it has look in this century. The hits and winning streaks will (hopefully) come down the road, and in the meantime they’ve squeezed out some wins and maintained a record around .500 while hitting like a .200-win team.

Around the league

• Wander Franco leaves game with neck injury.
• Joey Gallo is good again.
• Tyler Mahle to have Tommy John surgery.
• Starting pitcher free agents haven’t panned out this season yet.