Guardians dealing with a rare case of the bullpen blues

CLEVELAND — The Guardians aren't used to coming down with a case of the bullpen blues, but here we are. Cleveland's relief corps, which has been in the top 10 in the majors in ERA the past eight seasons, and top five in five of them, entered Saturday ranked 25th with a 5.55 ERA. "There's nothing you really change," said Hunter Gaddis, who was activated Monday after beginning the season on the injured list with a forearm strain. "It's baseball. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it sucks. You just show up the next day, go do your job." "Handling failure is what separates the great players from the not so great (players)," manager Stephen Vogt said. "It's all how you bounce back." Nearly everyone in the bullpen has struggled, including the one who holds down the most important role, closer Cade Smith. Smith owned a 4.50 ERA and 1.40 WHIP through Friday, allowing hits in eight of his 11 games and runs in four of them, while blowing two of six save opportunities. "Cade was the fireman for two years, so he had to kind of be ready from innings two through nine, and now it's kind of more of a, 'Hey, I'm going to be in later in the game,'" Vogt said. "And so I think it definitely takes some time to get that cadence down. But I think for Cade, it's a matter of getting himself back to feeling comfortable. "I think this has more to do with him on the mound, getting his delivery back, than it does routine. You can't rattle Cade Smith. I mean, there's no situation that's too big for him. He's handled the ninth inning extremely well since he got forced into that role last year, and it's just a matter of him getting back to being himself." The league has seen enough of Smith, one of the American League's top setup men the past two years, to have a book on the right-hander. It's not inconceivable that hitters have made adjustments. "When you're one of the best relievers in the American League for two years, your name, people start diving in on you more," Vogt said. "Cade's still not 100 percent of what he needs to be, and he knows that. He's still working on some delivery things, still working on some execution things. I think when Cade gets his command back, we're going to get back to seeing the Cade that we've seen in the past." Offseason addition Shawn Armstrong was brought aboard to help fill Smith's setup role, but the veteran is off to a slow start, entering Saturday with a 5.19 ERA in eight appearances. A poor appearance from Armstrong led to a disappointing 6-4 loss to the Orioles on Friday. "Just trying to get the delivery where it was in spring training. It's inconsistent right now," Armstrong said. "I don't think there's one rhyme or reason. That's the best way I can put it. Not locating the sweeper, that's the biggest thing and just inconsistent right now." "He's been really good for a long time," Vogt said. "(Friday) was a one-off and just unfortunate that that's how the game unfolded." The return of Gaddis — 3.11 ERA in 73 games last year — should help. In his second appearance Friday, he struck out all three batters he faced in the seventh, coming two strikes from achieving an immaculate inning. "I'm always trying to be perfect as a pitcher," Gaddis said. "You know it's impossible in baseball, but it's what you want to try and be. "The first (appearance in St. Louis on Monday) I was just really excited to be back for sure. That was my Opening Day per se. But (Friday) felt really good, just being back at home with the home crowd, and it just was really nice to be back." Mortal after all After a monstrous start to the season, Chase DeLauter has cooled off, entering Saturday with a .246 batting average. He had only one hit in his last four games through Friday and one home run since March 28. "The start that he came out with, it's not sustainable, but Chase is still having quality at-bats," Vogt said of DeLauter, who had only struck out 11 times with 10 walks through Friday. "He's getting on base and he's making pitchers work. You watch his at-bats, they are being very careful with him. They are trying not to make mistakes. That takes a toll on a pitcher, too. "Whether or not Chase is getting hits, we're not worried about him. He's having quality at-bats." It's a girl! When he took the mound Friday for his fifth start, more was at stake for Tanner Bibee, who was asked by his eldest brother Cameron to reveal the gender of his incoming child. Bibee wore pink shoelaces to signify it was a girl. "I was kind of scared I read the report wrong," Bibee joked. "They sent me the code to all their stuff and I looked at it and then got some pink stuff for it — threw it on the cleats and it was good, happy for him. "I had to change it up a little bit. I tried to get some cleats. They just didn't get here in time, but I had to adjust with some shoelaces because you can't really do much as a pitcher, so I had to adjust that way." Roundin' third The Guardians entered Saturday leading the majors by seeing 4.18 pitches per at-bat. Jose Ramirez ranked seventh in MLB with a 4.41 average, while Brayan Rocchio was second on the team at 4.18. Ramirez was batting .344 (11-for-32) over his last eight games, with three of his four homers, five RBIs, seven stolen bases and nine runs. Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @CAwesomeheimer.