The Guardians beat the Phillies 3-1 behind the strong pitching of Ben Lively, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase to open the weekend series in Philadelphia.
The Guardians had an expected batting average of .213 in the game, barely topped by the Phillies’ own weak xBA of .221. But, if you look at the top 10 exit velocities in the game, only two of them were hit by Guardians and only one of those balls got the hitter on base (David Fry’s RBI single in the first). So, in other words, this was vintage disgusting baseball. It even featured a great bunt from Bo Naylor and great running from Andres Gimenez to score a run.