Cal Quantrill’s 2022 post-season totals so far: two podium appearances for press conferences. Zero games pitched.
Thankfully, that’s about to change Tuesday night as the Port Hope, Ont., native is scheduled to start for the Cleveland Guardians in the first game of the best-of-five American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium. Finally, a chance to get on the mound after addressing the media before the Guardians swept the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, because Quantrill was scheduled to start the third game and the next day’s starter is made available to the media in the post-season.
Quantrill wasn’t needed for a third game … but as the Guardians starter for Game 1 of the ALDS, he was back at it Monday during workout day at Yankee Stadium.
Quantrill, you should know, is undefeated in podium appearances. No bold pronouncements. Nothing anybody can use against him. But then, Quantrill has been on a roll most of the season: he’s won 11 consecutive games, the longest streak by a Cleveland starter since Cliff Lee won 11 straight in 2008.
Quantrill is only the third Cleveland pitcher to go 11-0 over a 17-start span, joining Gaylord Perry (1974) and Johnny Allen (1937). The run has included been four consecutive road wins, holding opponents to a .074 average with runners in scoring position.
The Guardians don’t score much, right? Eh … except, it seems, with Quantrill on the mound. He’s received 6.33 runs per nine innings, tied with the Atlanta Braves’ Kyle Wright. During his four-game road streak, the Guardians have outscored opponents 26-8. Those opponents were Texas, Minnesota, San Diego … and, uh, the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I’ve said it before: Limit the damage, last as long as I can, and trust the lineup and the defence behind me is going to play their best baseball,” Quantrill said of his success. “I focus on great pitching. They focus on great ‘D.’ and that allows me to do the thing that I think I’m best at: staying in the game and giving me a chance to win.”
The Guardians weren’t expected to be here, let alone win the AL Central. But they cause problems with a pesky approach at the plate, terrific pitching leading up to the best closer in the game, playing good defence and doing boring stuff like going first to third better than anybody else.
Are they ready for Fall baseball in the Bronx? We’ll see.
While Quantrill has good memories of Yankee Stadium from his father Paul’s better part of two seasons with the Yankees (“pretty much a Hall of Fame lineup they were rolling out every day,” he said) his only other start here was something else entirely. That was April 23, when Quantrill gave up three earned runs and six hits in six innings and was out of the game when Gleyber Torres walked them off.
That 5-4 loss saw Guardians outfielder Myles Straw climb the outfield fence to get in the face of Yankees fans who were jeering Steven Kwan and saw the Cleveland outfielders and bullpen showered with beer and beer cans.
Straw called Yankees fans “the worst fanbase in the world.”
“That,:” Quantrill added, “was a moment in the season.”
Guardians pitching coach Carl Willis, who saw his pitching staff keep body and soul together when the Guardians tight-roped their way to 2-1 and 1-0 wins over the Rays (the latter in 15 innings), says that Quantrill’s evolution from being a sinkerball pitcher is behind his success.
“More than anything else, he’s a very aggressive pitcher,” Willis said. “He can shape the ball in many different fashions. He sinks it, cuts it and uses his curve and can be unpredictable compared to how he used to be.”
Quantrill has one post-season appearance to his credit: walking Aaron Hicks and striking out Aaron Judge to end the top of the ninth in a 10-9 Guardians loss in the second game of the 2020 AL wild-card round. Speaking of Judge …
“We are aware of what he’s capable of,” said Quantrill. “We’ll do our best to make sure we’re managing him. That said, we have a game plan. We are not just going to let him walk all over us hopefully and we are not going to allow to dictate the entire approach to the lineup.”
God-speed, young Quantrill. God-speed.
SIX PLAYERS TO WATCH
Aaron Judge, RF, Yankees
Let’s not out-think ourselves. Judge is coming off a historic regular season after turning down a seven-year, $213.5-million deal and while he chafes at the suggestion he ‘bet on himself’ … well, that’s exactly what he did. And the next step in that bet — the one that could force the Yankees to give him a blank cheque — would be to return a World Series to the Bronx for the first time since the remnants of the Core Four delivered the 2009 title.
Judge’s Yankees have lost three of their last four post-season competitions and his performance has been just so-so. It’s true his supporting cast needs to help him — especially, it says here, Torres and Anthony Rizzo – but the post-season is all about him as long as he’s in it.
George Kirby, RHP, Mariners
I’ll admit it: my heart’s not in writing about the Mariners.
I’m happy for Kingston, Ont.’s Matt Brash, who joined us on Blair & Barker and seems like a good dude. He has better stuff than anybody in the Blue Jays bullpen but — no, let’s not go there.
What is interesting is that it was Brash and Kirby were vying for a spot in the rotation earlier this year.
Kirby won; Brash was sent to the minors and told he’d be back as a reliever later in the year and they’d figure out 2023 in the off-season.
Meanwhile, Kirby closed out the Mariners’ 10-9 win over the Blue Jays in Game 2 of their AL wild-card series – his first relief appearance since 2019 in single-A. His first out was Teoscar Hernandez, who’d homered twice in the game.
Now, manager Scott Servais sees him as another high-leverage option, after a season in which he posted a 3.39 ERA with 133 strikeouts … but saw a frightening drop in velocity and spin in his final start — a loss to the Detroit Tigers that helped kill the Mariners’ home-field aspirations and even raised questions about his spot on the post-season roster.
I don’t think the Mariners have a prayer against the Houston Astros, but if things get funky … well, after Saturday I think I’ll just move on.
Josh Naylor, 1B, Guardians
Oh for god’s sake there’s nothing wrong with being a little parochial here. Naylor’s a great story: a kid from Mississauga, Ont., who suffered a gruesome ankle injury in 2021 that saw him tear ligaments, suffer a fracture and a dislocation and came back this season to hit .256 with 20 home runs and 79 runs batted in.
Naylor, whose brother Bo was called up during September, hit .198 in August and rebounded slightly to .241 in September and October and had two hits in nine at-bats in the Guardians’ win over the Rays — meaning he has a hit in all four post-season games in which he’s played, including going 5-for-7 with a home run in the 2020 wild-card loss to the Yankees.
It’s going to take some magic for the Guardians to win this series and with the Blue Jays toast, you take your hometown angles where you find ’em.
Jose Ramirez, 3B, Guardians
Go ahead. I’m going to be doing the same thing. Close your eyes and wonder what would have happened had the Blue Jays been able to pull off a trade with the Guardians for the switch-hitting Ramirez in the spring the way we all wanted.
A one-man antidote to your lack of balance. A guy who crushes — crushes — the Yankees … uh, at least until this season.
Ramirez was 2-for-18 against the Yankees in 2022 and 1-for-11 at Yankee Stadium, compared to career marks of .363 and (deep breath) .437 in the Bronx with nine homers in 25 games.
All told in 49 games against the Yankees, Ramirez has 23 extra-base hits and 31 runs batted in. Ramirez is the Guardians best player. He needs to be that and more in this series.
Luis Severino, RHP, Yankees
Way back in April, I made the comment that I thought Severino could have the biggest say in how the AL East race turned out. He’d made just seven starts between 2019-2021 due to arm trouble (including Tommy John surgery) and with Gerrit Cole and the emergence of Nestor Cortes the Yankees seemed to have the kind of pitching capable of a deep run, especially with a bullpen that had an answer for everything.
Severino had a solid year (5-3, a 1.07 WHIP and 95 strikeouts in 85 innings) but it was interrupted in July with a shoulder strain that raised all sorts of red flags and led in part to the key trade deadline acquisition of Frankie Montas — who hasn’t been able to stay healthy himself.
Severino tossed seven shutout innings in his last start on extra rest against the Texas Rangers and has allowed one earned run or less in nine of his 19 starts this season. Given the Yankees’ bullpen mess — a parade of injuries left the role of closer up for grabs even before Aroldis Chapman was suspended — the Yankees will need length out of all three starters.
Game 3 seems like it will be the crucial one in this series … and Severino will get the ball.
Justin Verlander, RHP, Astros
You don’t mind if I just link to this Jeff Passan article about how close Verlander says he came to signing with the Blue Jays, do you? No? Thanks.
That done, let’s look at Verlander, who will start Game 1 of the Astros/Mariners series for a team that has an embarrassing assortment of starting pitching depth: Framber Valdez, Lance McCullers, Jr., Luis Garcia or Jose Urquidy are all well-rested and lined up behind the ace.
Let’s issue this cautionary note: despite winning 12 of 19 games against the Mariners, the Astros’ run differential was plus-eight, so it isn’t like they boat-raced their division rivals. But Verlander shoves against the Mariners; take away the numbers of the gimpy-legged Ancient Mariner (Carlos Santana) and the Seattle roster is hitting a combined .204 lifetime against him.
That’s only marginally worse than the .210 average the Mariners managed against him in six games this season, when he went 5-1 with 43 strikeouts and six walks.
Verlander is the front-runner for the AL Cy Young, with a 0.829 WHIP and a 1.75 ERA that marks, at the age of 39, his first season with an ERA under 2.00.
Considering that Verlander and his team wrapped up their division title sometime in April, it seems, it’s going to be fun to see him pitching with something on the line for a change. My guess is I’m not the only one who would like to see the Mariners humiliated. Don’t think that makes us bad people, does it?
Jeff Blair’s picks
Guardians defeat Yankees 3-2.
Astros defeat Mariners 3-1.
