News and Notes for Monday, March 31st, 2025
The Guardians beat the Royals 6-2 to secure the series win. Nicole has your recap here.
José Ramírez didn’t play after jamming his wrist on Saturday, but Juan Brito and Angel Martinez were in the Columbus lineup, and Manager Stephen Vogt was positive about him on the pregame show. Supposedly, he was available if needed as a pinch-hitter.
The controversy of the game involved Emmanuel Clase hitting Johnathan India in the face with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. We all hope India is fine, it looked like the ball hit his ear flap, but at 99 mph, he could certainly have sustained a bad injury. With that said, with only a four run lead, no one is hitting India with Bobby Witt Jr. hitting behind him. It was an extremely cold day and it’s easy to see the pitch got away from Clase who has hit only 6 batters in his career and only 1 other batter in the head area. There are several Royals fans being very ignorant about this on Twitter, aggregators baiting reaction on it, and Eric Hosmer being particularly dense. India is a vibes guy, so I expect him to use this to help his team gear up to play Cleveland next time. Since 2020, the Guardians have hit the fewest batters in MLB; Kansas City, for example, has hit 50 more.
The Guardians’ hitters last season saw 141.6 pitches per game. So far, they are at 161 per game, good early returns for a more patient approach under new hitting coach, Grant Fink.
MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins reminds us that Tanner Bibee is “a dog.”
Zack Meisel has a great story out today on Jhonkensy Noel for the Athletic.
Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes says the Guardians’ clubhouse is abuzz with talk of the Yankees’ torpedo bats.
Around MLB:
The Twins joined the Tigers by getting swept in their respective opening series. The White Sox lost to the Angels.
Josh Naylor had three walks and went 2 for 2 for the Diamondbacks. Andres Gimenez hit a double for the Blue Jays. I won’t provide updates on these two for a while now, but just wanted to note that after the first few games, the VERY early verdict on Chris Valaika is not good.