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Logan Allen strikes out career-high 10 in Guardians 5-0 win over Orioles

By James Mastrucci

Cleveland Guardians v Baltimore Orioles
Cleveland Guardians v Baltimore Orioles / Mitchell Layton/GettyImages
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It is pretty safe to say that Logan Allen enjoyed his first start in Baltimore. The Clevleand Guardians rookie starting pitcher set a new career-high in strikeouts with 10. Allen's previous career-high was eight strikeouts, an achievement which Allen actually managed to do in each of his first two starts.

Nearly every Orioles starter went down via strikes as Allen struck out eight of Batimore's nine starters. The only Orioles batter in the starting lineup who did not strike out was Ryan Mountcastle. Meanwhile Allen struck out Adam Frazier and Ryan McKenna twice, in addition to getting Austin Hays, Ramon Urias, Jorge Mateo, Anthony Santander, Cedric Mullins, and James McCann once.

This was the second time in the span of just a few days that a Guardians rookie pitcher set a new career-high in strikeouts. It was Tanner Bibee striking out nine Saturday who kicked off the Guardians rookies setting new bests in the strikeout department. Next time out it could be Bibee looking to beat out Allen's new mark and set a new high of his own.

Allen had what was easily the best start of his young career. Allowing just three hits and walking two batters with 10 strikeouts is an impressive first outing at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. This strong pitching performance paired with Cleveland's bats actually showing up led to what ended up being a rare easy win for the Guardians. This was just their second win by four or more runs, the first being their 9-4 win on March 31st in Seattle.

Maybe, just maybe, Cleveland's walk-off win Sunday courtesy of Jose Ramirez was just the boost this team needed. But before anyone gets ahead of themselves, the Guardians need to keep taking care of business and winning games in a decisive manner. Up to this point they have won most of their games by close margins, and that is fine, but having wins that are of the grand slam proof (or close to it) variety is a lot less stressful than walking the fine line between winning and losing on a nightly basis.