No Guardians baseball is a rough way to wake up today.

The Guardians won 6 of 9 games against the Tigers in 18 days. Yet, the Tigers advance. Why do I follow this sport, again?

If it helps, you can listen to Stephen Vogt’s press conference here. I think I’d like Vogt to learn two things from this playoffs: 1. There is no circumstance in which Johnathan Rodriguez can play right field, and 2. There is a steep penalty for pitching the same relievers over and over in a short series. You have to rely on your full pen more and hope for the best.

Which, of course, would have been way easier to do were Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz not doing whatever the heck they are doing.

While Jose Ramirez did not have the big swing we are all looking for, I do think he had a solid series. Yes, he should not have been looking back to see if he could get to third in the 8th, getting tagged at second. But, he took his walks in the series, had solid contact and got the only RBI yesterday. It is a miracle anyone ever threw him a strike in this lineup.

The Tigers now face the Mariners, the Yankees the Blue Jays, the Dodgers the Phillies and the Brewers the Cubs. Go Mariners and Brewers for me. Cannot root for Kevin Gausman, John Schneider and the Jays, personally.

I liked Zack Meisel’s wrap-up pieces here and here. Not really interested in reading negative pieces on this team at the moment. Tim Stebbins has also done nice work for MLB.

The team, outside of Jose, had like an 80 wRC+. They have to add to the roster instead some meaningful manner to try to fix that. Period.