Guardians: One bad road trip no reason to panic, say players and manager Stephen Vogt

CLEVELAND — The Guardians opened each of the last two seasons with long road trips and produced opposite results. Last year, Cleveland came home with a 7-2 record after a 10-day trip. This year, the Guardians spent the first 11 days on the road but sat 3-6 prior to the home opener Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox. "It's early," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "We went 3-6 over the course of a couple different times last year. Every team goes through a stretch where you lose more than you win. And for us, we're hitting our stride. We're going to get it rolling. "We know there's some things that we need to improve on. We know there's some things that with the new mix of guys, we have to come together with and this team is going to find its identity and we're going to take it and run with it. And that's the fact that we're a really good ballclub. We've got really good players and we're going to go out and win a ton of games." Cleveland ranked 17th in runs per game at 3.78 through the first nine games, significantly lower than its 2024 total of 4.37. The Guardians were hitting .221 as a team with a .400 slugging percentage, which ranked 21st and 14th, respectively, prior to Tuesday's game. The good news is the top two bats in the lineup — Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez — are hitting as expected. Kwan is off to another strong start in the leadoff position, ending the trip with a .353 average and just five strikeouts in 34 at-bats with eight runs, a home run and a double. "We talk about it all the time with really small sample sizes," Kwan said. "If we define the season in nine games, we'll be in really big trouble. This is baseball, you have a little bit of a run we could easily go another way any other time. You just have to play baseball, you just have to stay with it. You can't blow things out of proportion. You just have to take it one day at a time." Ramirez, who regularly hits second, already has four home runs — including three in leading Cleveland to an 8-6 win against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday, his second career three-home run game. He entered Tuesday with six RBIs and just four strikeouts in 25 at-bats. He missed one game after a scare with his right wrist in the second game of the Kansas City series, but he returned to the lineup for the remainder of the road trip. He's struggled in the field, however, committing a team-high four errors on the road trip after committing only nine in 2024. The Guardians committed nine errors through nine games, which was tied with Pittsburgh for the second-most in MLB, behind Boston's 10. "Obviously different outcome," Ramirez said of the team's slow start compared to last year. "We face really challenging teams and every year is different and for us it's going to be a long season. So we're going to continue having fun and seeing if we can get the results that we want to have." Cleveland's pitching staff was still trying to find its rhythm before the 1-0 win Tuesday. Opponents were hitting .284, which was second-worst in the majors, and the 5.09 ERA was fourth-worst. The rotation combined to allow 32 earned runs during the road trip while the bullpen allowed 11. The Guardians elected not to bring back starters Alex Cobb and Matthew Boyd after they helped strengthen the rotation down the stretch in 2024. Boyd had a strong postseason for the Guardians, allowing just one earned run in three starts that spanned 12 innings. Fortunately, there's plenty of baseball left for Cleveland to get on track. "From my perspective, it's how do we best utilize the roster?" Vogt said. "How do we best utilize our players? What are their strengths? And it's different every year with every player. "I think for me it's a clean slate for everybody. Go out and earn it. And our guys are working tremendously hard. Like I said, the results haven't gone our way, but we've also seen a lot of good things throughout this stretch, a lot of things that we can double down on and clean some things up." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.