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POSTGAME REACTION: Guardians' season over following Game 6 loss to Rays, Stephen Vogt questioned
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00:00and the rays are heading to the world series the guardian season is officially over and we want to
00:05hear from you guys again 216-474-0092 there just wasn't a lot there and then anthony you walk into
00:10tonight and i voiced my concerns pre-game that i don't love you going back to sean armstrong
00:18twice in three days i don't love the fact that you're going with a bullpen game i when you know
00:24that this is a bullpen that is now pitching on their third day in a row you know that you've
00:28used
00:29a lot of your bullpen in this game and you need them for game seven as it is even if
00:33you are able
00:34to win and it just felt like i evokes plan today going into game six was the plan that he
00:40probably
00:41should have had going into game four which was we can just chalk this one up and make sure our
00:45guys
00:45are uh you know we have foster parker gavin right down the back end of the stretch yeah i mean
00:50it
00:50was even on last night after they lost and i kind of threw my hands up at the end of
00:53the show because
00:54i was like i don't i don't know what else there is to say the team cannot hit their pitching
00:59is
01:00overused and overworked so like when you ask me when i come in here tonight if i would have done
01:04anything differently than sean armstrong starting off tonight i again i threw my arms up because i'm
01:09like i don't know what else i would have confidently gone to like would i have gone to tanner bybee
01:16i don't
01:17know what i've gone to joey cantillo i don't know i mean they did as the quote-unquote bulk guy
01:21and
01:21then your bulk guy got what an inning in a third or an inning and two thirds somewhere right around
01:25there so for me i mean this that's why there was zero confidence that they would be able to pull
01:30this one out like other than the fact that oh this is the team that had their backs up against
01:33the
01:34wall in the regular season they were down two to nothing last series well eventually your luck is
01:38going to run out you just simply have to play like the better team in a series especially to in
01:44order to
01:44beat a team that's better than you on the road two straight games and when you remove gavin
01:48williams from the situation your hitting's not magically going to get better with an overnight
01:52flight down to tampa bay after that loss yesterday like there's nothing there that gives me confidence
01:57or like a real take that i could have been like yeah i don't love sean armstrong but i would
02:03have gone
02:03with x y or z like i sat here i probably would have went to tanner bybee in this game
02:07and listen i
02:07wouldn't have done it confidently uh again where i think vote messed up was the idea that you basically
02:13played the hey we're we're still sticking with sean in game four even though it got pushed back
02:18and then you're like actually we're going to pitch foster griffin behind him and this is going to be
02:21it was like your trick up the sleeve right like the ears lulling into you foster's not going to pitch
02:25because he started game one we're going to go with the opener we're going to go with the original plan
02:29but by the way you didn't think you're getting foster here he is okay well now foster can't pitch in
02:33game five you have to go to parker messick and you better hope that you're winning this series
02:37heading back because if not game six is do or die and you don't have foster griffin you don't have
02:42parker messick cantillo has only been available out of the bullpen bybee is a non-factor in this
02:47series legitimately did not pitch like where else are you going like you have nowhere else to turn
02:52to you want to go to slade zaccone in this game like you're going to have to throw a bullpen
02:55game
02:55with the idea that hey our backs might be up against the wall so i think he messed this up
02:59all the way
03:00going back to game four but like i don't know you walk away from this game you scored three runs
03:05and two
03:05of them came in the eighth uh the four runs ended up being the difference maker were given up by
03:10a
03:10combination of kate smith and hunter gaddis two guys who have been pretty lights out for you this
03:14postseason especially kade i listen i can't change the fact that kate smith is a ridiculous pitcher and
03:22cam and arrow just managed to take him uh you know down the line well and also the fact that
03:26how many
03:26innings does he pitch this postseason how many innings has he pitched against the rays over the last
03:31seven eight days like eventually the guy was going to get you junior cam and arrow is a damn good
03:38hitter for a reason and again whether or not that's why there were so many question marks about
03:43why like i felt like steven vote wildly outmanaged kevin cash for the first three games of the series
03:48and i don't know what happened but like you mentioned going into game four it you you had
03:54yourself set up pitching wise to not overextend yourself so that you're going to kate smith in the
03:59seventh tonight in the seventh tonight and you have to pitch him for a you know umpteenth straight day
04:05i don't know what the hell happened to where he he it felt like he gave the series back to
04:10tampa bay
04:10in a situation where you were up two to one and you had everything going for you you had the
04:15pitching
04:15matchup going for you i like but yeah with the with the kate smith stuff i i don't how mad
04:20can i be
04:21about him how mad can i be about your nails closer that had either tied for or the most saves
04:27in the
04:27american league this year tied with the both brian baker the tampa bay closer and was literally lights out
04:33like you could set your alarm to it that he was going to go one two three yeah the only
04:36thing he
04:37gave up this entire postseason was uh the vargas homer when they were by like five and who cares
04:41in the alds right it was it was a garbage time run up until obviously tonight like and that's a
04:45guy
04:45you trust and like i honestly didn't hate the decision to go to kate in the seventh it obviously
04:49doesn't work for you but like i get it you you want to keep this game as close as possible
04:53you want
04:53to give your offensive chance give them a little bit of life get them right back up as fast as
04:56you can
04:57it obviously just doesn't go the way you want to and listen there there's a lot of things we're going
05:01to
05:01point to but anything how am i supposed to sit here and defend the idea of a bullpen game that
05:06truly does become a bullpen game i mean you went sean armstrong into tim heron into matt fest and
05:10joey cantillo for an indian two-thirds and espino sabrowski smith gaddis that is a whopping eight
05:16pitchers used in this game alone we we know the problem with bullpen games and like yeah uh you know
05:22you look over at chicago they're they're doing bullpen games left and right uh the rays threw a bullpen
05:27well no they really didn't like what a driven jacks game like four or five innings in that game
05:31uh so it was basically just an elongated like hey we got a guy that's a bullpen guy but it's
05:35going to give us a little bit of length here and every time you looked at chicago sure they were
05:38going bullpen games into a bulk reliever yeah like that's how it works it was hey we're going to try
05:44and shut down the hottest part of your order and then let our starter get hot going up against five
05:48through nine and hopefully by the time he rolls back one two three it's the first time they see him
05:52and
05:52he's still got it and he's going to give us three plus innings every single time so you walk into
05:58that this
05:58was a true bullpen game where you couldn't trust cantillo to go even two innings for you and you
06:03use eight different guys you walk into bullpen games like this guys something's going to go wrong
06:08like period you're banking on the offense that has been horrible since game three of this series and
06:14really even in the games two and three they weren't that great but they've been horrible most of this
06:18series and you're banking saying hey we know we're going to throw anywhere from six to eight arms
06:24probably at least in this game we need you guys to go out there and put up runs because listen
06:29you
06:30throw six to eight arms there's almost a guarantee one or two of those guys does not have it that
06:34night and for tonight for the guardians it was uh somewhere closer to like four of those guys
06:39didn't have it tonight oh well and again that's why going back to saturday and sunday's game why it
06:43didn't make sense the approach that they had because we've basically seen now three straight bullpen
06:48games like and and yesterday wasn't necessarily supposed to be a bullpen game but it's not like
06:54you should have had a long leash for parker messick especially for what he showed us earlier in this
06:59series so you knew that there was going to be uh plenty of usage out of that bullpen but i
07:05that's
07:05why i didn't understand doing the parker messick start yesterday as opposed to try for the bullpen game
07:11uh on sunday and then at the very least you line up parker messick and gavin williams for game six
07:16and
07:16seven i would much rather have that situation as opposed to what we had today uh freddie peralta
07:22who had your number in game two freddie peralta who had your number tonight and like you mentioned
07:26you're relying so much on your offense that hasn't showed you anything that's why for some reason
07:30over the weekend the feel of this series the feel from steven vote was just completely lost
07:35and like okay i mean i'll ask you to you straight up anthony you look at this thing and it's
07:40obviously you know the pitching the opener game leads to seven runs for the raise on seven hits
07:45uh the guardians offense puts up three which in a couple of these games is enough to win but still
07:50is in an offensive onslaught by any means where's the blame for you tonight's game specifically like
07:56the series overall i think we can probably chalk up to mostly head in uh but for tonight specifically
08:00the offense laid a dud for you or the opener game cost you no i don't know how i can
08:04blame
08:04bullpen arms that are at the end of their line i i really don't know how i can blame tim
08:08heron
08:08that has pitched so much this entire postseason or sean you know sean armstrong was awesome but like
08:14cantillo hunter gaddis guys like that again kate smith allowed your two run home run as part of
08:18you know that kind of puts you from the three nothing deficit and the three one deficit to then
08:24the five one deficit that you know you even come back next inning and score a couple of runs but
08:28it's
08:28still not enough to get you there how am i supposed to blame those guys when i've seen them so
08:32overused
08:33we the problem is we knew this offense going into the postseason was bad it wasn't a good offense
08:39that's not because we watched it for 162 games and they were getting better with guys like
08:44nathaniel lowe and joe adele with guys like travis bazan and patrick bailey but none of those guys
08:51showed up when it mattered the most every time that joe adele got to the plate you if they were
08:56two outs you could walk away because you knew that was the end of the inning nathaniel lowe was fine
08:59he
08:59got a couple of hits today but i got him to be a left-handed power bat how many home
09:02runs did he hit
09:03this postseason zero zero so i have to blame the offense that has seen freddie peralta uh not seven
09:11days ago you have to adjust you have to know that the onus is on you and like you said
09:17when you're
09:18going out in a game where you have overused bullpen arms you have to be able to score consistently
09:23and they didn't do it this entire last couple of games of series and they specifically didn't do it
09:28tonight see like i put this more on the idea and like the offense isn't off the hook i mean
09:32both of
09:32them are obviously to blame for tonight uh it's on the bullpen game but i'm not putting that on the
09:36bullpen arms like i'm not sitting here being like well you know kate smith cost me the game or you
09:41know joey cantillo cost me it's not on any individual uh that i'm sitting here saying they cost it for
09:46you
09:47it's on the idea that you were throwing a bullpen game in game six of the alcs you can't do
09:50that
09:51like you can't back yourself into such a corner by the way when you are gifted an off day when
09:56you
09:56desperately need it when you can reset your entire pitching staff and what was the whole take
10:01around that the game when they're sitting there like oh you know we're gonna end up going to this
10:06tampa didn't want that game to be canceled they wanted to play that night because they felt like
10:10they had a distinct advantage going through for the rest of the series hey we can really wrap this
10:14thing up and get after the guardians right now they have to throw a bullpen game and you basically
10:17walked it in through another one for them and even excuse me even if you go with the bullpen game
10:22on the saturday saturday and this is even armchair quarterbacking because both of us said
10:28the same exact thing on saturday on sunday and then today where the approach pitching wise did
10:35not make any sort of sense whatsoever why do you have foster griffin who was never in a reliever role
10:41until this postseason and started a game for you this series why do you not have him that he won
10:46that
10:46he did great in how do you not throw him and trust him to start and get four innings on
10:52sunday
10:52and then again you set up parker messick and gavin williams because at the very least if your
10:57backs against the wall i would rather go down with the horses that brought you here and that's not
11:01sean armstrong and eight different pitchers and kate smith in the seventh inning that's parker messick
11:06your rookie of the year cy young candidate and gavin williams who's pitching lights out now you put
11:12yourself in a spot where you don't even get to gavin williams like it's really just walking away from
11:16who you've been all year and i get it like you're gonna see more bullpen arms in the the postseason
11:20you're gonna see starters get uh their leash reined in as they should that's how postseason baseball works
11:24you need to be better every single night like you're starting pitching is such a massive reason
11:30on why you got here right like the offense was not electric there's a reason they went and picked
11:34up you know three bats by the time the deadline came around and made batrick bailey a little bit
11:37more defensively but same thing they they picked up three players that were in their starting lineup
11:41over every single day uh to actually boast this offense to try and get it to a level but starting
11:47pitching is what carried you here all year long and it's like you were not an opener team
11:51for a majority of the year you were not a team that even if you walked away and you're like
11:56hey
11:56i mean we don't trust every starting pitcher on our roster you were still going to starting pitchers
12:00you were getting decent starts out of foster griffin uh and especially i thought he was really good
12:04this postseason where he hadn't been for a majority of the regular season but like at six been awesome
12:08he's cy young gavin williams has been awesome uh tanner byby obviously has not been great but like i get
12:13september was bad everything was like there were multiple things that were not good over the course of the
12:17year he had like a four era like he was a usable starting pitcher and it feels like you walked
12:23into
12:23this series and we're like how cute can we get yeah right how many different things can we box
12:27ourselves into to do anything but just start a starting pitcher right now and i don't know why
12:33they did that because as you mentioned even the one guy that they went with the bullpen opener style
12:38thing was joey cantillo okay that's fine you don't trust him to pitch the first inning for whatever reason
12:42we're going to make him the bulk guy today's your perfect example to do exactly that where joey
12:48cantillo was comfortable in that situation but instead you try to play cute with the matchups and
12:53put tim heron against chandler simpson and then you go to cantillo and then you have a quick hook on
12:57him
12:57so that you can get to i don't even know who pitched after him like it's it's all your favorite
13:03so
13:03okay so matt festa like you you were playing matchups you you were trying to do two things at once
13:09and
13:09it's getting away from again what this team was all season it was a resilient bunch it was a team
13:15that never backed down that's great but they didn't hit all that much they were going to ride
13:18their starting pitching to the end and their starting pitching is why they were able to get up to this
13:22point they even did that in the five games of the alds that's what's so confusing as to how you
13:28win
13:28that game storm back from the dead and win that game after being down two to nothing and then you
13:34get
13:34into this series and it's a wildly different approach like you walk in with one opener i get
13:39it right like they did that in game three against the the white socks and cantillo had been doing it
13:43that's a guy i want to see do it you don't do this with foster griffin and then into what
13:50is supposed
13:50to be joey cantillo but like i said they tried to get cute they decided oh no we can go
13:54heron here
13:54because we are matchup hunting chandler simpson who by the way i don't know that he had a batted ball
14:00that left the infield today uh but we're matchup hunting against chandler simpson not junior cam
14:04and arrow right not yanni did chandler simpson is the guy that we're going up against the matchup
14:08it makes absolutely zero sense but i want to hear from you guys 216-474-0092 uh who do you
14:14blame
14:14more for tonight's loss individually uh do you blame the offense or votes decision to go with an opener
14:20for tonight's loss