Guardians got clutch pitching performance from unlikeliest of sources in Friday's win over Tigers 

On Thursday night, the Guardians announced their somewhat surprising decision to turn to Logan Allen in Game 1 of their doubleheader against the Tigers. 

And that decision ended up looking exactly like how everyone imagined when Allen allowed five runs in just 2 1/3 innings. It was about as disastrous as a performance the Guardians could get on a day where they needed to cover 18 innings. 

Then a funny thing happened: Slade Cecconi saved the day. 

After missing a little less than a month with arm fatigue that seemed to stem from his move to the bullpen, Cecconi relieved Allen and pitched 2 2/3 solid innings while the Guardians’ caught back up to Detroit in an eventual 7-6 walk-off win. 

Even though Cecconi wasn’t perfect (he allowed a home run to Spencer Torkelson), his outing was just what the Guardians needed to salvage a game that looked like it was decided in the second inning. 

Slade Cecconi had a strong outing out of the bullpen on Friday

While Cecconi’s outing ended up being one of his gutsiest of the year, it initially looked like it was going to be another dud thanks to that homer to Torkelson (who was the second batter that Cecconi faced off against). 

But he was able to get out of the inning and set the Tigers down in order in the fourth inning, which set up Brayan Rocchio’s game-tying homer in the bottom of the inning. 

He then doubled down by recording a 1-2-3 fifth inning that was highlighted by him getting Riley Greene to ground into a 4-6-3 double play before striking out Ben Malgeri to end the inning. 

Although he got just five whiffs, the velocity was up on his of his pitches and he used his sweeper the most after entering the outing with a 5% usage of it for the season. 

Cecconi may not have been the biggest performance of the day thanks to Rocchio’s offensive outburst, he was able to hold the line ahead of the Guardians turning to the more shutdown arms in their bullpen. 

After Cecconi left, Craig Yoho, Erik Sabrowski and Cade Smith combined to all just four baserunners over the final four innings while striking out five. 

While the Guardians’ decision to start Allen nearly ended up backfiring, Cecconi showing that he could be a quality bullpen option gives the Guardians another weapon to use in their quest toward a postseason spot. 

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