Guardians bullpen struggles for third time in last six games

For the third time since returning from the All-Star break, the Cleveland Guardians have seen the bullpen not perform at an acceptable level.

Wednesday saw Sam Hentges come to the mound in the 7th inning and promptly give up a lead to a PIrates team that was rather quiet in the first two games of the series. Hentges would exit before the inning was finished, allowing four runs on three hits in 0.1 innings of work. This outing in Pittsburgh is just the latest occurence of Cleveland's relief arms not pitching at the level that is expected of them.

Going back to their first game in Texas, Cleveland's bullpen has given up 16 runs on 19 hits during games in which they held the lead and ultimately lost. This includes their first game which saw the bullpen give up 10 runs total after coming in with a 4-2 lead following the exit of Aaron Civale. While this was the largest run total given up by the relief corps, it was the other two games which were much more deflating.

The Guardians held a 5-2 lead going into the 8th in Texas and Trevor Stephan was not able to do much of anything resembling productive pitching. Stephan allowed four runs on three hits in just one third of an inning. Cleveland's bats were silent in the Top of the 9th as they were handed their third straight loss to the Rangers.

Of the seven relief appearances from the Guardians bullpen, six of them saw a Cleveland relief pitcher give up multiple runs. Three of these instances featured just one third of an inning pitched, hardly an acceptable rate of pitching.

Below are the apperances of Guardians relievers who made appearances during this recent stretch.

While there are a few appearances that did not result in a hit or a run scoring, overall this is a pretty ugly list. It would be one thing if these blow ups were isolated to just one pitcher or one appearance, but the fact they have compounded in the same game or over multiple games is not exactly ideal. Cleveland is counting on these arms to prevent runs from scoring and these relievers were not up to the task. This is simply unacceptable if the Guardians are going to actually make a run and not fade away from being a potential postseason contender.