Did Cleveland just witness the most ‘Guards Ball’ opening day ever? (Podcast)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Thursday’s Guardians season opener had everything: timely hitting, surprising defense, a gutsy pitching performance and (at times) lockdown work by the bullpen. The result might just be the most “Guards Ball” opening day win ever.

On Friday’s podcast, Paul Hoynes and Joe Noga look back at how Game 1 came together, and look ahead to the next 161.

Listen and read along with an AI-generated transcript of the podcast below.

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Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Joe Noga 0:08Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast.I’m Joe noga. Joined by Paul Hoynes.Hoynes. We’ve got an opening day winner. The Guardians come from behind.And.Rally to beat the Royals in 10 innings, seven to four on opening day.Just can can you think of a more guards ball game than than that it had a little bit of everything?It had, you know, contact hitting good solid pitching.Timely defense and and it all started because Ben Lively was on the mound in place of Tanner Bibey completely.Expect it caught everybody off guard with by be missing the opening day start due to food poisoning.Pretty crazy day at the ballpark for you there in Kansas City.

Paul Hoynes 0:58Joe, you hit the nail on the head, man.Lively gets a call.What on Wednesday?He’s in.He’s in Arizona.He’s getting ready to make a minor league start to stay in line for a start against San Diego next week.And they tell him, get on a plane.Tanner Bibee is sick.And you might be the opening day starter and and and the unflappable.Live he goes OK.Sounds like a plan and catches an early flight, ends up at the hotel in Kansas City, and they still don’t know if he’s going to start.He only finds out, you know, a couple hours before game time because on Wednesday night, Vogue told him.Hey, you know, live. I mean, Tanner might be feeling better by Thursday morning.We want to give him a chance every chance to start, but just take it like you’re going to, you know, prepare like you’re going to be the starting pitcher.And you know, that’s what he did.He went out there and Joe, he is.He’s something else, man.5 innings he gives up a bomb, a three run bomb.He left a hanger to Vinny Pasquintino, but you know, other than that you couldn’t ask for much more from a guy like that.

Joe Noga 2:14Yeah, I think what he retired the last seven batters he faced, he was, you know, first obviously his first opening day start.But you know, he he was just the third.Third, different opening day starter for the Guardians in the last 11 seasons. They go from, you know, 5 for Corey Kluber in a row to five for Shane Bieber in a row.You were thinking it was gonna be the start of five in a row for Tanner Bibee, but you know Bybey sidelined by the the mysterious food poisoning.You know illness.Just the you know, it’s appropriate that you were talking about a guy whose warm up song is yellow submarine because it’s it’s nice and mellow and it keeps him keeps him sorta even keeled. That’s about as even keeled as you can get when you’re talking about a guy.Going from.Possibly working on a backfield minor league game in Goodyear to just pitching on opening day.Ben Lively’s heartbeat must be completely untraceable.Just, you know, a great story about the, you know, the the, the step into any situation, he said.Ben Lively from 10 years ago would have would have probably freaked out and and probably would have been a ball of emotions.But you know the the 32 year old is is out there.You know, mowing him down for five innings and and it was, it was great that.That first inning, when Cole Reagan’s had, you know, bases loaded and and was pitch count was high.Ben Lively goes out there, throws a nine pitch first inning and and gets out of it rather quickly. 123 Just an all around.Great. Great effort by by Ben Lively.Can’t really say enough.

Paul Hoynes 4:03Yeah, definitely.Joe, what do they say when when you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs? There’s something wrong with you.Nobody. He did a great job, man.He just he just he was Ben Lively.That’s the guy we saw.For what, 29 starts last year?Kind of grinded it out, you know, has a little bump in the road, then comes back and recovers nicely and sets him up for the win.

Joe Noga 4:29Yeah, 74 percent. First pitch strikes to 14 out of the 19 batters he faced. So.Just an exceptional opening day start for Ben Lively, the other Guardians player with an exceptional opening day, Kyle Manzardo his first opening day game came a single shy of hitting for the cycle drives in a career high four runs.Has a 222 run home run.On to run double.Just pretty, pretty outstanding day all around for Kyle Manzardo with the plate and all this damage. Most of the damage done against left-handed pitching.Hinsey. That’s got to make Steven vote and the hitting group feel very happy.

Paul Hoynes 5:15Yeah, 3 for three against lefties, Joe.All those hits did damage and.I guess as Steven Kwan said it, it all has to do with that mustache at the MANZARDO has has under his nose.So he is he a revelation, Joe?He was.A guy that missed a couple days in camp with his sore left shoulder, but nothing looked sore on him yesterday.Just a big.Wings, big power swings, the triple I think. Set him up, Joe.There’s triple in the in the 4th inning, got past the right fielder on a renfro and you know, and and you know, I think manzardo once went in standing.So I don’t how many stand up triples he’s going to get in his career, but that was a heck of a way to start.

Joe Noga 6:09Yeah, he said.He had a couple of them in in the minors the last couple of years, but nothing like that.Yeah, his his home run was just the second opening day home run by a guardians player in the last eight years. The first one since the last Guardians player to hit a home run on opening day was Roberto Perez in 2021 at Detroit, so you know.Think about that. That’s that’s pretty crazy.

Paul Hoynes 6:32Yeah, that’s hard to believe.I saw that stat and I just really, I mean somebody didn’t hit a home run on opening day, but it was really that was something.

Joe Noga 6:37Yeah.Well, you got to figure some of those opening days are in Cleveland when it’s probably about 30°.

Paul Hoynes 6:44Yeah, yeah.

Joe Noga 6:45So it does help.But that game that Roberto Perez homered in 2021 at Detroit? It was snowing in that game. So.Not a really good excuse for RBIs, for manzardo in the game, he becomes just the third player in MLB history with a, you know, a four RBI game on opening day.You know, joining Tris Speaker in 1925 and Leon Wagner from the Saint.Louis Browns 1964 versus Minnesota.

Paul Hoynes 7:21Daddy weighs.

Joe Noga 7:23Yeah. So.Just an all around surprising, but you know, hopefully we see more of this kind of effort from manzardo.Just I guess it’s exactly how Steven Vo drew it up, right?

Paul Hoynes 7:39Yeah, you know, Manzaro had a good camp, Joe.He hit what, 321?He was tied for the team lead in home runs.And Aquan said this is a guy that, you know, we could kind of tie our tie our wagon to here.He could be the backbone of the the offense. I mean that’s that’s, you know, asking a lot of a guy that you know is really starting his first full season in the big leagues.But he he’s he’s he’s confident at the plate.He’s got, you know, so who knows?I mean, but it’s a heck of a way to start.And you know, and you know, he’s we’re going to see him at first base a lot more this this, this season.So who?You know, this is just, you know, this is the first step obviously, but it was a heck of a first step.

Joe Noga 8:27Now we’re going to see him a lot more if Carlos Santana and Bone Naylor keep running into each other the way they did.

Paul Hoynes 8:32Diesel men.

Joe Noga 8:34Yesterday that was a collision for for all time.What was your perspective on that play?

Paul Hoynes 8:38Yeah, you know, Bo had the ball in his sights, you know? And you know, Carlos was running it, sprinting in from first base, and I didn’t think it was that big a collision.But Santana went down hard and stayed down, and his mouth checked.Hopefully he doesn’t have to go to the dentist today, but, and and Naylor was kind of shook up too ‘cause they they climbed heads. And you know that. And so you know, that caused most of the damage. But thankfully, you know, they both stayed in the game.And they both appear to be OK after afterward.

Joe Noga 9:12Yeah, side note on the trip to the dentist on opening day saw a tweet from Charlie Goldsmith in in Cincinnati. Our old friend Terry Francona woke up at 2:00 in the morning with a chipped veneer and had spent went at 6:00 in the morning on opening day spent.A couple hours in the dentist chair before going to the ballpark.Typical Terry Francona opening day, you know that.That’s the kind of story about Tito that doesn’t surprise me one bit.

Paul Hoynes 9:42He did the same thing in the in the ALCS in Toronto.Joe he he was chewing gum and and chipped a tooth, or the veneer came off in his tooth. He found some dentists at midnight in Toronto to repair to do the repair dam, you know, to repair the damage.So yeah, you know what goes around, comes around with Tito.

Joe Noga 10:01Midnight dentist in Toronto sounds terrifying.Just it sounds like the beginning of a a horror film.Alright, Guardians improved to 63 and 62 all time in 125 opening day games.They win back-to-back openers for the first time since 2013 and 2014.They overcame A33. Nothing deficit to their first comeback win of the season. Obviously, last year 42 comeback wins, the second most in the big leagues.And you know, they had to go extra innings to do it. The 17th extra inning game on opening day in franchise history.And the first.And they’ve won an open extra inning game in on opening day.First time since the 1994 opening of Progressive Field against Seattle.There the first time they’ve won an extra inning, opening Day Rd. game since 1977 at Boston.So that’s how far you got to go back.I was exactly 1 years old at the time.Of that game.So you think about that?

Paul Hoynes 11:15You did you watch that Joe?Where you watch it from your play, Ben.

Joe Noga 11:18Yeah, that was.I was watching it on clegardians.tv.That was the the way that everybody watches it.

Paul Hoynes 11:25Yeah.

Joe Noga 11:27It’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the fact that.Not a lot of people got to see the first inning of the game if they were watching it through MLB.TV system went down.And now the Guardians are offering a free ticket to those who were left out in the cold there in the first inning.The the new system will talk about the the new system.Here in a minute at the end.But yeah, the Guardians have have won their last 100 games when leading after the 8th inning.So even though they had to go into extra innings to do it the last time they lost a game that they were leading after the 8th inning was August of 2023 against Tampa Bay.

Paul Hoynes 12:10Wow, that’s amazing.And and that includes, you know Emmanuel Class A blowing the save in the 9th inning yesterday.What? That’s a.That’s a heck of a stat right there.And you know it’s it’s a.You know, it’s a tip of the cap to that, wrote that bullpen and Joe after.After Lively gave him those five good innings, Kate Smith and Tim Heron came out and retired six straight guys.You swear it was a repeat of last year?The way those G.You know, Smith and Herron pitched just a really a remarkable performance. And then we get to the get to the 7th inning, Joe. Or was it? It was the 8th inning and then take it take us from there what unfolded.

Joe Noga 12:51Is is he a thing?It was the 8th inning when the.When? When? The Follies you know sort of showed up. You’re right.You talk about the formula for guards ball. You talk about Steven Voge having things set up.You know, he knew Ben Lively gave him five good innings and and he’s got a day off on Friday.He’s got his, you know, four top guys lined up and ready to go.Smith Heron, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel clase.With a one run lead.That point it was four to three, and Hunter Gaddis comes in first. Two guys reach base, you know, double in a single.You’ve got nobody out and runners on the corners and you’re thinking, you know, all the momentum is on Kansas City side.They’re about to have a big inning and and break things open and take the lead.Jonathan India at the plate sends a hard ground ball at Jose Ramirez and Ramirez immediately.Throws home, they get the the the pinch runner.You know, thrown out or they get him in a rundown between third base and home plate.They tag him out, but the important part is that Jose Ramirez keeps his head about him, and Kyle Isbell, who’s you know, going from first to second round, second base, a little bit too aggressively.Jose sees that runs at him.They get Isbell in a rundown and they executed perfectly.It was, you know, it wasn’t one of these rundowns that you. You’re you’re making 567 throws. It was a 5.2546 double play as they tag out the runners on base.Jonathan India advances to second base Hunter Gaddis strikes out Bobby Witt to end the inning.Get out of it with no run scoring escape damage, but talk about just a base running mistake by.I.Kansas City, you know, getting himself caught in a king size pickle twice in in one play, but then just the the execution by the Guardians defense coming out of spring training, it’s exactly what they had practiced pretty much every day.And that’s what Steven vote said he was most proud of.

Paul Hoynes 15:14Yeah, huge.Huge momentum shift. You know, the double play and then like you said, Joe Gatta strikes out, you know, maybe the best hitter in in the American League to to end that inning with a man on second base.So just a huge, huge momentum shift.And lively. What did lively say?Lively said.Hey, we executed.They didn’t execute and screwed up the whole game.

Joe Noga 15:43Yeah.

Paul Hoynes 15:43When he said that, I almost started laughing because it’s a little early to start.Chirpen. But you know, if you know lively, he doesn’t care about that stuff.

Joe Noga 15:52No, he’s, he said it with a giant smile on his face.It was like, you know, this is just the way it was, so.

Paul Hoynes 15:55Yeah.

Joe Noga 15:59If you don’t like it, don’t run into outs on the bases, I guess is the is the best way to say it.You know Gaddis for for as bad as he looked at the start of the inning, the double play made him look better and and striking out Bobby Witt made him look really good.The the trouble, you know, came in the 9th inning when you’ve got your All Star closer on the mound and he gives up a couple of hits to start the inning.And then, you know, allows a run on what on the SAC fly and the game is tied. You have to go to extra innings.Emmanuel Clase is it too.Obviously it’s it’s too early to to think anything but Emmanuel Clase struggled in the playoffs and everybody’s gonna say, oh, look at, you know, he had a just a tremendous regular season. But then, you know, the wheels fell off the cart in the postseason.Is this a carryover from that?He didn’t look.As sharp in the in in spring training this year. But again his his spring training looked like it had the last three years pretty much identical.

Paul Hoynes 17:00Yeah, Joe, it’s we’re gonna have to wait and see a little. A little better, you know, kind of sample size here. But, you know, Kansas City is always kind of giving him a hard time.They know him.You know all the AL Central teams know, know you know what Class A throws, you know. And even though, you know, I don’t think he’s lost any of his stuff is blo was still high.You know, they jumped on the first pitch they were.They ambushed the fastball with Vinny Pesquintino with the double.Salvador Perez did the same thing with the single and then, you know, Massey gets the SAC fly. But the big thing is he came back, got the three outs to keep it tied, you know, pitched around an error by Ramirez, you know, so, you know, he gathered himself.I thought, what votes?Said after the game.You know? He said.You know relievers give up hits.You know when they do.Everybody wonders what’s wrong when they when they get the outs and do their job.Nobody even talks about him, he said.Class A, still the best reliever, closer in base in the American League.And it’s and he’s going to keep going to him.So we’ll see how this unfolds.But Joe, I mean, he’s had three super years.And if the league is adjusted?Well, we’ll see that as well too.

Joe Noga 18:23Yeah, well, maybe like you’re saying.The familiarity breeds you know, a more comfort level with these AL Central teams.Maybe. Maybe when he gets a save against an AL Central team, it should count double for him.

Paul Hoynes 18:37You’re not kidding. Yeah, definitely.And, you know people are, you know, they can’t.They can’t wait to face them.You know, this is this guy was almost perfect last year. What 4?

Joe Noga 18:43Yeah.

Paul Hoynes 18:48Was he?I can’t remember the save total.He only blew two or three. Yeah, I mean.

Joe Noga 18:51It was.It was really good. 4444 saves a 0.62 ERA.

Paul Hoynes 18:57He gives up five earned runs during the season. These guys, so these guys can’t wait to face him.

Joe Noga 18:59Just.

Paul Hoynes 19:02They this is like a test of manhood when they face Class A and you know, I think he’s going to have to realize this and he’s going to have to adjust.

Joe Noga 19:11Yeah, well, the beneficiary, I guess sort of through the back door, there is a Paul Sewald who comes in in his first Guardians appearance, earns the save in the in the 10th inning.So again, the the formula was there.It didn’t follow exactly the script, but the reason that you got a guy like a Paul Seewald to be on the roster is to sort of support him.Annual Class A and close out the games that that Class A.Can’t close out and it worked perfection there.

Paul Hoynes 19:44Yeah. Great call there, Joe.I mean, you know, they brought Seawall, and Jacob Junis in to back this.Bullpen up and seawall has history as a closer.Had a big year closing for Seattle a couple years ago, so the 9th inning was nothing. I mean, the 10th inning was nothing new to him and he retires aside in order and everybody goes home happy.

Joe Noga 20:10Yeah, the was this a guards ball game.I mean, it feels like a guards ball game.Manzardo hitting a home run. You know, triple-A couple, you know, a couple of sacrifice flies to score your first two runs.It does sort of feel like it was a.It was a garbage ball game.

Paul Hoynes 20:29So Joe, I mean, like you said that the home run gives him the lead in the gives him the one run lead. You know in the in the 5th inning Quan, one of their best hitter, one of their best hitters obviously gives himself up with a sack B.To advance the runners to 2nd and 3rd Ramirez, the next guy up hits the sacrifice fly, so get him over.Get him in, you know? And as you know, so that you know, that was what their second run really put him back in the game.They were only down 3/2.Then and then Manzaro hits, hits the two run Homer in the next inning and gives him the lead.

Joe Noga 21:04Were you surprised the Kansas City pitch to Jose in that situation?You know, with the base open and after.Kwan had had sacked, you know, given up the sack bunt.Is that something that the Guardians are going to have to talk about, you know, in the future with Jose batting behind Kwan, you might have to see fewer sacrifice bunts there with Quan cuz if you know if that base is open, they’re going to walk Hosey eventually.

Paul Hoynes 21:33Oh, that’s a good point.I didn’t even think about that, Joe.Yeah, yeah, but might have been maybe a little too early in the game to do that, but, but you know, yeah, that, you know, I think I don’t know how many times we’re gonna see Quan Bond sacrifice bun.

Joe Noga 21:39Yeah.We.We’ve seen teams.I believe what Detroit we’ve seen intentionally walk Jose just twice.Just say, forget about. You’re not going to get a chance to hit in this situation, so.

Paul Hoynes 21:56Yeah, that’s all they did to him in the postseason, wasn’t it?I mean, how many times have they intentionally walk him?

Joe Noga 21:59Right.Well, don’t forget he’s he’s what?How many?I think he’s franchise leader in intentional walks or he’s he’s right right there. I think he’s one behind Jim Tomey for the the franchise leading intentional walks.

Paul Hoynes 22:10Yeah.It’s.

Joe Noga 22:16It might be the case.So you got to keep an eye on that. I can tell you in in, in a, in a heartbeat here.Intentional walks.Of course.Yep, no, he is the he’s the franchise leader with 88.

Paul Hoynes 22:29Wow.

Joe Noga 22:30Jim told me he has 87.So yeah, he’s already been walked more than any Guardians player in in franchise history.So yeah, again, a guards ball type game.Just that, that that great feeling, they win a game like that. You gotta, you know, a big smile on your face because of the way that, you know, they had to come back and do it.So just a lot of fun there.The TV situation we found out.The morning of 8:00 AM, we we all finally got.The the cable channels that the the Guardians would be appearing on this year for for most of us, it’s the the same sort of number channel that they had appeared on with FanDuel in valleys before that. So not a big change.I know I’m watching on DIRECTV stream.Cox and Spectrum and a bunch and AT&T all had their deals done.I guess it was AT&T that was holding up the show with MLB.That was the contract was being negotiated through Major League Baseball.So that’s why the delay took him to the morning of.But everything got worked out and everybody got to see theirs until until they couldn’t.And there was an outager in the in the first inning.So now the Guardians offering compensation, offering a free ticket to those who were not able to watch the game.At least the beginning of the game on Thursday.And you know.No, it’s fair is fair I guess, but we’ll we’ll see how round two of the MLB, you know, broadcast experience is for the Guardians and their fans coming up on on Saturday.

Paul Hoynes 24:14Joe, good move by the Guardians, you know, issuing free tickets.I know there was a lot of fans that were upset, lot of, you know, a lot of the text and instant mess. You know, a lot of text and tweets and people complaining and imagine that, Joe, I mean you only announce your TV schedule, what, 2 hours before?First pitch and there’s a problem.

Joe Noga 24:39Yeah.

Paul Hoynes 24:39You know, how could how could that happen?You know, with with today’s technology, but you know it is.What it is? I guess that that’s the nature of the business and hopefully they get everything ironed out here.They’ve got an off day today and the schedule resumes Saturday, so we’ll see how it goes.

Joe Noga 24:56Yeah, let’s let’s move forward with this TV stuff and never think about it again as as it caused way more anxiety among Guardians fans than I think a lot of people really wanted to see off day today.So, you know, soak up the the nice 80° weather out there in Kansas City.As you know, we’re we’re sort of looking forward to Saturday, the game to start.We don’t know who the game two starters gonna be for Cleveland, do we?We it could be Gavin William Williams like.Could be Tanner bibey?They could reshuffle things.What’s the latest that you’re hearing for a Game 2 starter?

Paul Hoynes 25:32Yeah, just just heard something, Joe, as we were talking.It looks like Gavin Williams is going to go Saturday and Tanner Bobby’s going to come back and pitch Sunday. The series finale against Kansas City bouncing back from that illness that cost him his first opening day start.

Joe Noga 25:50Well, that’s that’s a headline there, you know, by the going to take the mound on Sunday. I I like that by be going against the other teams. Number three, I think that’s a pretty good way to go.Seth Lugo going against Gavin Williams on Saturday as everything is lined up for that 410 start from Kauffman Stadium.Hoynes. We will talk to you again next from Kansas City on Monday.Or I’m sorry from San Diego.On Monday, as we get ready for the the second series of the year, when the Guardians face, the Padres will talk to you on the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. Then check in with you there.

Paul Hoynes 26:32Good deal, Joe.