Guardians offense has been offensive

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - There is a phrase you sometimes hear in baseball when a line up is just clicking, “one-through-nine, keep moving the line.” The Guardians these days have been more like “one-through-one and then they’re done.” Terry Francona knows it. “We’re not keeping the line moving,” said the Guardians manager. “When we get started we have to keep it going.”

The team has made changes, Oscar Gonzalez was sent down to Triple-A Columbus. He had a bad April and just never recovered. It can happen to young players. But now it is May, and the problems are still here. The worst thing that can happen is for players to start to press, but it sounds like Francona keeps them loose. “I think Tito does a really good job of not hitting the panic button and not allowing us to hit the panic button,” said Steven Kwan. “Some of the older guys like Jose and Ahmed, it’s business as usual with them, so that’s really good. As younger guys we just follow suit and say ‘this is baseball.’”

The Guardians entered play on Tuesday tied for the second-worst team batting average in the Majors, only .223. Many of their players are hitting well bellow their career averages. That suggests things will change. In the meantime, it is not fun to watch.

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