CLEVELAND, Ohio – Rookie manager Stephen Vogt felt he was on to something after the Guardians opened the season on a nine-game trip.
They had just spent seven weeks in Arizona for spring training, but couldn’t go home because Progressive Field was undergoing renovations. So they wandered from Oakland to Seattle to Minneapolis.
The Guards won three out of four in Oakland, two out of three in Seattle and two more in Minneapolis with one game getting postponed because of weather.
“After that 7-2 trip, I felt we had something going,” said Vogt.
Nine games is single grain in a 10-pound bag sugar in a baseball season. Remember, this is the same team that has been shutout 15 times, only four fewer than the White Sox, who have lost 117 games.
Rookie managers, however, never lack for enthusiasm. Vogt was like that as a player and carried it over into the job he’s wanted all his life.
His enthusiasn has been tested at times this year. Tested, but never defeated.
Six games into that season-opening trip his best pitcher, Shane Bieber, was done for the year with right elbow that needed surgery. The starting rotation has had pitchers coming and going ever since.
Eventually some sense or order was resorted.
Tanner Bibee replaced Bieber. Ben Lively provided stability with 27 out-of-nowhere starts. The front office acquired veterans Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb. While home-grown arms Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen have spent the majority of the season at Class AAA Columbus, lefty Joey Cantillo has showed promise and Gavin Williams has had his moments once he escaped the injured list.
The best thing Vogt has done is give everyone a chance to play. It has kept the clubhouse happy, and it has kept fans guessing at who will be in the lineup on a daily basis.
Speaking of lineups, on Thursday, the day the Guardians clinched a playoff spot with a 3-2 win over the Twins in extra innings, the last three hitters for the hometown nine were Jhonkensy Noel, Brayan Rocchio and Austin Hedges. Following the win they were hitting .229, .210 and .153.
The names change, but the batting averages stay about the same. You can look it up, but somehow Vogt has made it work.
Noel hit 12 of his 13 homers in his first 110 at-bats. Rocchio, who had a game-tying sacrifice fly Thursday, had the game-winning hit Wednesday. Hedges runs the clubhouse and does a nice job behind the plate.
After Thursday’s win, it was Hedges who presented Vogt with the team’s championship belt that has been presented to the star of the game since the beginning of the season.
When everyone is healthy, Vogt has four everyday players — Steven Kwan, who is currently injured, Andres Gimenez, Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor. The other five positions are up for grabs based on matchups and who’s hot and who’s not.
When Mike Hargrove managed the Indians, he used a set lineup. His favorite saying when question on the matter was “regulars are regulars for a reason.” Of course, the regulars Hargrove had during Cleveland’s great run in the 1990s could have filled an All-Star team.
The Guardians sent five players to the All-Star Game this year — Kwan, Ramirez, Naylor, David Fry and Emmanuel Clase. Fry, moreso than the other four, represented the Guardians style of play and player perfectly.
He’s played all over the diamond, including catcher, while hammering left-handed pitching. His production and versatility has suffered since he injured his right elbow, but it was as if Vogt created him in a test tube.
The Guardians, with Vogt mixing and matching his lineups and turning his base stealers loose, rolled through the first half.
They went 19-10 in March and April, moving into sole possession of first place in the AL Central on April 14, a spot they’ve occupied for 178 consecutive days.
They were even better in May, going 19-9. Things slowed a bit in June at 14-11, but they were still 58-37 at the All-Star break with a 4 1/2 game lead.
The second half has been a grind. The schedule turned hard and the Guardians took some lumps. Yes, they clinched a playoff spot on Thursday, but they’re just 31-28 since the break.
Vogt stayed the course and so did his players. Every day he’d meet reporters with the same message, “We have great players on this team. Every team goes through lulls. We’re in a great position.”
That was the message even when Kansas City pulled into a first-place tie with the Guardians on Aug. 27 by winning the first three games of a four-game series. The Guardians won the next day and haven’t looked back.
Following Thursday’s win, they have a 6 1/2 game lead over Kansas City in the Central and a magic number of three to clinch the division with eight games left in the regular season.
There’s something else Vogt has said just about every day to the media. He doesn’t fall down on his knees and thank his bullpen, but you get the idea that he might.
“I’m running out of things to say about them,” Vogt has said time and time again.
Every rookie manager should have a bullpen like this. Or at least one part of his roster that will keep him sane from game to game.
The best bullpen in the big leagues has been the Guardians and Vogt’s blessing, if not their salvation. Hitters from across the big leagues have had their come to Jesus moments trying to hit Tim Herrin, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Clase with the game on the line.
Stephen Vogt, rookie manager of the first-place, 89-55, playoff bound Guardians, has done all right for himself and his team.
