Joey Cantillo just showed Guardians why trusting him in the postseason could be double-edged sword 

It may be hard to believe, but Joey Cantillo’s four postseason appearances are the second-most of any member of the Guardians’ current rotation. 

While those appearances have amounted to just five innings due to most of those appearances coming in relief, Cantillo’s no stranger to pitching when the lights are the brightest, namely a  raucous Yankee Stadium or packed Progressive Field. 

On Wednesday, Cantillo took the ball in the Guardians series finale against a lowly Angels team in a diamond that was the furthest thing from raucous or packed. 

Even if the Angels Stadium atmosphere looked nothing like what the Guardians could see in October, Cantillo still found a way to show why he could be worthy of a postseason start… while also showing why that could also be a bad idea. 

With the Guardians bullpen light after Tuesday’s taxing win over the Angels, Cantillo took the mound knowing he was likely going to go for 100 pitches regardless of what things looked like on the field. 

What followed was one of the oddest starts of the year, as Cantillo surrendered a career-high seven walks but only allowed three runs across six innings to help set up the Guardians’ eventual come-from-behind win. 

It was clear that Cantillo didn’t have his best stuff, but he was able to grind out enough at-bats to keep Cleveland in the game.  

If you were to look up gutsy in the dictionary, you’d probably find a picture of Cantillo next to it. 

“That was the start of the year, in my opinion,” Stephen Vogt told MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins after the game. It’s hard to disagree with him. 

Joey Cantillo put the Guardians on his back on Wednesday

Cantillo was in the unenviable position of knowing that the Guardians needed length out of him after Gavin Williams only managed to go 1 1/3 innings the day before, and Cantillo was to do that despite running into the kind of struggles that would normally derail an outing. 

After surrendering a run in the first inning that came about in part due to a bad throwing error from him, the Angels scored two more runs in the second inning after Cantillo surrendered three walks, a hit by pitch and sacrifice fly. 

Normally those kinds of struggles lead to Matt Festa warming up in the bullpen followed by a quick hook, but Cantillo was able to rebound and finish with four more scoreless innings. He seemed to get better as the game went on, as he only needed 21 pitches to get through the fifth and sixth innings. 

While his ability to dig deep was great to see, the fact he was in that position in the first place was still a bit troubling. It’s one thing to be down 3-0 in the second inning to the Angels, it’s another thing to have that deficit against the Yankees in a do-or-die postseason game. 

Last year the Guardians handed the ball to Cantillo in the deciding Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, and he allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings before getting pulled.

While there’s a chance that could happen again this postseason, Cantillo’s start on Wednesday also showed just how much he’s grown as a pitcher this season. 

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