The Cleveland Guardians are in a direct competition with the Minnesota Twins for the AL Central lead.
Every game counts: they are six games behind with less than a month left to play.
On Monday, the Twins beat the Guards, 20-6.
Things started going south from the go, as Minnesota scored once in the first inning, five times in the second, and three times in the third.
At the conclusion of the third inning, the Twins were leading 9-1.
At one point, and seeing how they couldn’t come back in the score, Cleveland gave the ball to position player David Fry to pitch the last four innings.
From that point forward, things got very embarrassing for the Guardians.
“Guardians position player David Fry pitched four innings and threw 64 pitches tonight. He allowed seven runs on 10 hits,” Talkin’ Baseball tweeted.
Guardians position player David Fry pitched four innings and threw 64 pitches tonight
He allowed seven runs on 10 hits pic.twitter.com/FoP4vvsK9L
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 5, 2023
At one point, the Twins were up by a score of 18-1.
It became real ugly for Cleveland, and even though sending Fry out there was an understandable decision given Lucas Giolito’s inability to contain the Twins offense (he allowed nine runs himself), it goes against the competitive balance that MLB is supposed to preach.
Fry allowed 10 hits, seven earned runs, and walked one hitter, with no strikeouts.
He also conceded three home runs: to Matt Wallner, Kyle Farmer, and Joey Gallo.
It will be a whole different game on Tuesday: the Guardians are sending star rookie Tanner Bibee and his 3.03 ERA to the mound.
They need to start winning games and do it fast.
Above all things, however, they need to do everything in their power to defeat the Twins if they want to have a chance of making the playoffs.
NEXT: Guardians Insider Shares Positive Update On 2 Star Pitchers