The Guardians didn’t fare well in their first test against one of the elite teams in Major League Baseball, losing 6-2 to the Atlanta Braves Friday night.
Chris Sale brought back recent memories of Cleveland’s struggles vs. left-handed pitching, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out six in seven innings of one-run baseball. The lefty mashers David Fry and Ramon Laureano were not up to the task last night, which certainly happens. I would assume the leash on Laureano as a platoon player vs. LHP is probably not longer than the end of May, but it’s disappointing he hasn’t been able to continue his 120 wRC+ against LHP in his career into 2024 so far (obligatory small sample size caveat).