MLB Network | Mark Derosa breakdown AL-Central leading Guardians sweep of White Sox with 6-4 victory

that would be us that would be us would be us the Cleveland Guardians Chris jimz Al palowski great to have you so a 6 to4 win is the final today and an early home run by Austin Hedges gave Cleveland at the time some Breathing Room yes thank goodness great to see obviously you can tell he's been grinding a little bit uh offensively he has taken some better at bats you know as of late but it's always nice to see that prestigious power come back yeah here it is his second home run of the Season kind of hung a breaking ball inside there and he made a P good swing honestly he got a barrel to it he stayed through the baseball you can see he knew it was gone that's always such a fun feeling to remember again when it's been a long time like that um trust me I think uh dug was Dugout was a little excited for him right there he's usually the one in the Dugout you know causing all the havoc in there getting these guys fired up but it was really nice to see him come out on the winning end of that all right Austin hedg is right now standing by in Chicago with Andre not there are numbers in baseball that hold importance to all of us for the Guardians they got the sweep today and go 22 games over 500 I know people can look at teams records they can look at different things hedi but how important was it for you guys to take care of business here this week I mean it's September man it's uh it's time to go try and take this Division and uh you know Chicago's an in division rival and we knew we had to come out and play good baseball they played us tough for three straight games and I felt uh you know we we played good baseball we still got uh Room to Grow but uh we're playing good ball right now I would think that people that just look at the box score say all the Guardians won but you had a great third inning and then the bottom of the third inning didn't go well talk about leadership and carrying on and make playing the right way well how important was it for you guys to get the game under control after that yeah I mean you know uh they scored four runs but we still had the lead and uh you know the boys know that we didn't really play our best baseball that inning uh but we respond so well it's like you know right when uh things go wrong I feel like the boys know exactly how to respond and uh you know I thought our bats were good and then you know they didn't score any more runs the rest of the game so um you know that's hat hats off to our pitching stuff talking about that Boyd comes out striking out guys left and right can't get through the fifth inning we saw the bullpen do it last night just for the people out there you catch these guys you're around them what is it about this Bullpen that they're able to do this night in and night out I mean they just show up every day they all want the ball um it doesn't matter if they've thrown uh you know three days in a row I know Hunter got us through three days in a row for us and you that was some of the best he look today so these guys want the ball they're hungry they know they're the best bullpen in the league and they want to prove it to the world all right everybody has home runs they remember you you have the ball from your first home run I got the ball from my first one yeah I'm this one though this is a big one did you get this one for this one this is a big one right here if you want to count how many I got now go ahead I I've been counting and you know I got all the way to like 65 then I was like little bit more a little bit more because back in spring training if you guys remember enroll with us he wanted you to tell me that you had the second most home runs career-wise he did not but today he hit number 69 that's right how important was that for you that's right I got one more than Lane Thomas now he's got 68 if he gets a 69 I'll be proud of him that we'll all be very proud of him I love you I love you hey we're going to keep talking because of the first game tonight of this series I had Naylor out here and he was in there talking about me cuz he couldn't Crown somebody so we're just going to keep talking so I got get in there I got to get in there you do got to get in there the sweep for the C good job Ed all right let's take a look at the 3D for Austin Hedges as he sent this one out to left yeah 34 degree launch angle that's pretty much ideal between 25 and 35 from a degree standpoint from the long jangle is a great place to be if you're trying to hit homers over the fencing they have set up in the alfit you can see the distance there as well you know was able to have plenty uh of distance there from the foul pole wasn't in any danger of going foul this was just a really good swing by Austin H all right you talked about the bullpen a little bit too and the bullpen once again phenomenal shut out baseball four and two thirds Innings uh two hits one walk nine strikeouts today combined for the bullpen Kate Smith dominating once again goes to an inning and a third he gets four strikeouts so all the outs he got were what yeah strikeouts yeah I mean this is uh extremely impressive the best part is he did it on 17 pitches he only hit three strikeouts I believe but he did it on 17 pitches which is absolutely insane the rest of this Bullpen went to work as well it's so nice to have a guy like this down there that you can throw in in any situation know he's capable of not running that pitch count up as well all right Hunter gtis wi an inning he had the three strikeouts struck out the side in the eighth inning he did he looked uh like a big machine at the back end of a bullpen right now this is just overpowering stuff two pinch hitters yes they haven't seen pitches today but these are really good established Major League hitters he made them look silly today all right so the bullpen has been fantastic all season long for Cleveland it's got the best ER in all of Major League Baseball it's been that way for a while here's the way it went today it's the 53rd game of three or more scoreless Innings of for relief pitchers that does lead MLB as well I bet it does you know we we've been saying it over and over but it it is has come to fruition this is the best Bullpen yeah you got CL he's the best closer in the game right you've got gison Smith who you could argue the best setup man of the game but it's also the depth in front of them today was Nick sandin I know he's had some rough times the last couple of months but he pitched well today and he has some other guys that have come in in front of these guys Tim Heron is another one that done a nice job so it's it's the depth I think more than anything that really seals the deal for this Bullpen yeah you're right that's the sign of a quality Bullpen is going out there and having multiple guys that you can throw in in different situations we obviously know Steven vot's not afraid to go to these guys early and often right so you got to have that depth that can cover those Innings down there they've done that so far and they've done it with you know flying colors really only one earn run there nine strikeouts for Boyd today yeah he looked like vintage Matt Boyd from when I remember him pitching in Detroit against us all those years ago you know he did a good job of establishing the strike zone we talked about it in the pregame show about Joey cantillo kind of setting up you know the game plan for him to be really successful today yeah he had a little blip in the radar there in the third inning when the defense you know trying to make a play just wasn't able to give up a four spot again only one of those runs earned right I think the most important part though is you saw the change up it looked really good the breaking ball he utilized that when he needed to and he blew guys away with his fastball and if you utilize those two breaking pitches enough in the strike zone it makes that fastball play up even more sure because you're you're looking at maybe something off speed and then you get the fast ball can't catch up I you saw that a lot today right you saw these kind of in between those pitches that's when you know you're doing the right thing from a catching and a pitching standpoint all right let's send it back to Chicago right now and check in with the manager it's brought to you by your Northern Ohio Toyota dealers here is Steven vote what' you think of boy today you know I thought Matt really battled um you know that first thing he came out you know foul tip away from a Immaculate inning and then I felt like his command and just like there were the zip on his pitches wasn't quite there today and um they did a really good job of battling him um you know we didn't have the cleanest inning there and they took advantage of it and um it was a very uncharacteristic inning for us but I thought Matt threw the ball well he just ran out of pitches that third inning you guys score the runs and they get back and you talk about concentration and Leadership just what does it say that that inning had to happen you guys bounce back and kept the lead yeah I think that that's just a testament to this group I mean that's an inning right there where it gets away from you you let them back into the game and and you can just sit back and relax the rest of the way or or play you know timid but we didn't we stayed on it and we were able to add on and what you think Hunter G us I the whole bu but gtis I think third day in a row yeah this first time for him going three in a row and I mean man his stuff look good so all these guys are are pitching in every situation they're they're getting experience for for down the road and um just the job that they do every night is you can't talk about it anymore L Thomas gets four RBI on two I mean what's it say about your Bas running and and she's making contact that this yeah I mean I think it's you know not not only are our guys busting you know down the line but you know both Hemi and hosy they were thinking score right off the bat and you know that's the base running that we talk about from spring training we want that's how we want to run the bases and that's how these guys always run the bases they run hard they they don't take any out for granted they're trying to they're trying to you know cause some chaos yeah was Boyd okay with after he got hit by yeah he's got a bruise um it pretty it looked a lot worse than it is um thankfully um X-rays were negative so uh he should be good to go with Thomas he's coming up for even though they two hits today that produce the r get out of the in's like 400 this month he's really he's a really good player and we're glad we have him is it every day a good day that HGI hits a home run yeah you can't help but you know celebrate when hedi goes deep and um these guys they clown on each other so hard then it's it's so much fun to just be around what overall with the with the trips I think six and three you got how do you feel about I I feel incredible about it I mean this was a tough road trip I mean this late in the year to be gone for three cities play some really tough teams and you know I think for us to keep our concentration through this series and and our guys played really hard all throughout the trip uh this late into the year during this long stretch of games uh this could have gone one or two ways and I'm really proud of the way they played and you Bullpen seven sco was yesterday and they come back right again I mean it's h i don't even know what to say about them anymore I really don't I these guys are prepared and they work really hard to stay prepared well the ball Club certainly did well today well-rounded game Steven vode had a lot of guys to talk about one of those is laye Thomas who had three more hits today now you want to know when you're living right when you get two infield singles in a row and you get four RBI total that's incredible ask if you've ever seen that before because I don't know if anybody in Major League Baseball has ever seen this before but give him credit for hustling down the line he kind of sniffed this from the very beginning but talk about hustle look at the leader of your team never even stopped rounding third base scored easily there this is incredible you have to have you have to pre-think that thing out right like that's not something that just happens initially that's a I'm going to bust it the entire way I know I'm going to force somebody to make you know a decision on a play and he did exactly that well he's hit for power he's driving in runs and he's also of course got that speed on the base paths Lane Thomas in September batting over 400 that includes 10 games uh this is a guy right now that you can put in the lineup against righties or lefties you can pretty much hit him wherever you want second fifth wherever he's going to deliver and this is the exact bat again we've been talking about a Cleveland needed when they made that trade in July yeah and it's the guy that they thought they were getting in that trade right and that's a good thing because they needed to see this out of him I think he needed this for himself from the mentality standpoint from the confidence standpoint it's nice for him to be able to have and contribute a little bit as he as much as he has been doing and I think that just continues to build your confidence now you feel like you can go out there and hit in any one of those spots that you talked about and do anything at the plate all right when we come back how's your hand feel first of all it's uh it's uh it's it's it's pretty sore but uh all good nothing to you know just um uh yeah nothing wrong with it just just pretty sore is it just a reactionary player we saw can make a play like that the other night as well yeah hindsight you know you look at the replay and you're like I should have let that go cuz shne would have taken one step and and caught it and through right so uh um just just instinctual I probably uh should have let it go but yeah did you feel like I know hedi said you feel like felt like you didn't maybe have your best stuff but how were you able to kind of go through their lineup the way you did yeah I mean you know the funny like I I think I I felt I felt really good today um not to not to knock hedi hgi's right I didn't I just I wasn't commanding the ball it was I with how good I felt I shouldn't have had the you know you falling behind in some counts and when it came down to it like you know just chances to put guys away went and and and missed right and um and and like yeah hedg is exactly right just the stuff felt good today and uh you know it's um it's unfortunate that you know it's like situations happen like the third inning it's um that's where you know stuff happens you got to minimize and you know just made a few mistakes you know with the pitches right pitch just bad execution and uh you know led to that inning your walk was uh was that just a misom miscommunication yeah that's on me no completely on me um I uh I'm I'm you know the guys have told me everything about the plays and I heard something on the pitchcombe everything right except me so that's just completely on me I just I thought it was something different than what you know what it was you ever had an imaculate in no but um I guess we got close there in the first yeah and you know that's kind of what I mean is I was like the stuff was good it just it was um I just I I had you know you go through the game and it's like they have chances to make pitches you know and I just I just didn't execute and and sometimes you don't execute and it just and nothing happens from it I just didn't execute it led to a single and led to a double and you know it's compounded when you know like I make a Bo and whatnot so um you you just got to make that you well you you got to minimize when those things happen and unfortunately it just came in a came in a row there in the third what does this trip mean to you guys be able to go six in three and just change your BL man it's awesome it's really awesome that's a three city road trips are hard um going different time zones like that is is it seems you know it's hard when you know you're uh trying to go to bed for a Day game the next day and you're like you know there's a you know you you were playing at that time a few nights early right and uh you know long playing right so that like to come out with what we did what was it yeah six six that's that's awesome playing against you know um and we were in the games that we weren't you know we didn't win right uh we're right there so um yeah it's uh it's man this group is awesome so like it's guys are just playing so well and uh it's we're just they're working their tails off so it's uh it's fun but we're excited to get back home piggy backing off of that could you imagine being able to like go back to January and telling yourself what position you'd be in now that you would feel the way that you feel now and just not only like personally what you've been able to do but just the team and the position you guys are in right now you know yeah I mean I'm I'm just overwhelmed with gratitude right because of like where where we are where I where I get to be get to be part of this amazing group um you know it's one of those things where it's like in the moment you're like I I believe that's going to happen like I wouldn't have been surprised but it's like how are we going to get there you know like I don't I don't see the I don't see the path to get there Lord but I I I do believe it's going to happen and uh it just kind of trust he goes back to just hey this let's just let's just be where we are today right and I just again I can't the the Gratitude I have that I to be here with the squad to be part of this team amazing group of guys is um it's immense l it has been processed normally [Music] [Music]