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CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians continued their surge in the AL Central with a 5-2 victory over the Twins, and Wednesday’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast focused on how the club is winning with crisp, fundamentally sound baseball rather than relying solely on home runs.
Paul Hoynes and Joe Noga praised rookie left-hander Parker Messick for another efficient outing, discussed the bullpen’s growing reliability behind Colin Holderman, Hunter Gaddis, Sean Armstrong and Cade Smith, and highlighted Travis Bazzana’s aggressive baserunning and unconventional “cricket swing” RBI single.
The conversation also covered Kahlil Watson’s expected return to Triple-A despite an impressive night, José Ramírez’s apparent readiness to return from hamate surgery, the lineup decisions his return will create, and the entertaining story behind Petey Halpin slapping hitting coach Grant Fink after his first major league home run.
Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s an AI-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.
Podcast Transcript
Joe Noga: Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. I’m Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes. Hoynsie, the Guardians come through with a 52 win. Take game two of their series against the Minnesota Twins. They are now what half came back in the American League Central Division. They’re playing clean baseball and they have a chance to, you know, put some real separation between themselves and the Twins in third place in the division with, you know, two more wins in the series as it continues. But last night, really, it was Parker Messick, it was the bullpen and it was some aggressive base running and timely hitting that they, they rode guards ball to another win.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, Joe, that, that six inning was really, that was really fun baseball, you know, you know, fundamentally sound baseball. There was a double steal in there. There was two sacrifice flies, consecutive sacrifice flies, and really a, a close play at the plate. Did you think Bazzana was safe?
Joe Noga: Yeah, like originally when we saw it in real time, I thought maybe he got his hand in there. I thought it was a good challenge by Stephen Vogt and the, the replay team for the Guardians. But replay showed Bazzana got his hand to the plate before the, the tag was applied. I guess it missed his, his, his hand on the front side and it got to his chest. So, you know, really good aggressive baserunning. It’s one of the reasons why they like Travis Bazzana so much. You know, the front end of that double steal and you know, they manufactured the run. Two, two sacrifice flies. They haven’t done that in a while in the same innings. So just a lot to like about that sixth inning and the rally that they put together as well as, you know, what Parker Messick was able to do early. Bouncing back from giving up an early home run to Ryan Jefferson.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, he goes five and two thirds, gives up one earned run, four hits, no walks, six Ks. His first appearance since, you know, throwing that scoreless inning in the All Star game. I thought he looked solid, Joe. He, you know, I was kind of, I was a little bit surprised when they took him out in, in the US with what with two down in the sixth inning. I thought he could have finished that game, finished that inning at least. But you know, another, just another kind of a workman like performance by Messick and you know, it’s, it’s what we’ve come to expect from them.
Joe Noga: Yeah, it was the, the first time they had had multiple sacrifice flies in the same inning since May 28th of 2024 at Colorado. So I, I knew that that was bouncing around in my head somewhere. But as far as Messick goes, yeah, he. Boat and Messick, you know, both talked about, you know, he might not have necessarily had his best stuff last night, but he goes out there and he competes and really that was, you know, what, what you saw out of Parker Messick was a sort of vintage Parker Messick, if you can say that about a rookie. It’s, it’s. It’s what he does. And that’s first thing the votes said in the post game was that’s, that’s Parker being Parker. That’s what we’ve come to expect from him. So, yeah, I, I think what. It’s the, the first he becomes the first Cleveland left hander to go five or more innings in each of his first 20 starts in a season since Cliff Lee in 2008. So, you know, that’s, that’s pretty consistent. But you think about it, it’s been a while since somebody’s been that consistent. Left hander’s been that consistent for, for Cleveland.
Paul Hoynes: What Cliff, he. That’s the year he won with Cy Young, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure.
Joe Noga: Well, that’s a good omen, huh?
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, I mean, he won 21 games that year. I think he’s the last, last 20 game winner as well. Maybe Corey Kluber won 20. Yeah, one after, after, after Cliff. But yeah, really solid performance. And you just, you know, he’s, he’s really, he’s established himself that this is what he’s going to do. Joe, if, if he gives you something less than that, you’re surprised. You really are. If he, you know, and he hasn’t really got knocked out early, he hasn’t really given up A. His era is what, 2.3 something. I mean, it just keep, he keeps lowering that era and just, just really, he’s really, you know, kind of just establishing himself in, in the big leagues.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And, and, and that’s when the conversation moves from, well, this is, you know, a, a rookie of the year candidate to, to maybe this is a guy who maybe gets some fringe Cy Young. Cy Young votes what the ballots are five deep for the Cy Young. So, you know, he, he’s bound to make an appearance on some ballot in the American League. If you can vote for five guys. This is. He continues to raise our expectations, I guess is the point of this now, like you said, if he doesn’t go out there and give you five innings, you’re gonna wonder, you know, what went wrong or what. So what’s the outlier there? So yeah, just another great consistent outing for Parker Messick. Then he hands it over to the bullpen and the bullpen comes in and gets what, three and a third scoreless, two hits allowed. Colin Holderman gets, gets him out of a big situation after, after giving up a walk and, you know, really, Sean Armstrong, Hunter Gattis hand the ball up to Kate Smith. And when that happens, it’s pretty much automatic.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, just really solid performance by the pen again. Holderman, Sean Armstrong, Gaddis and Smith just really, you know, I think you, you’ve got, you know, and they added on a run, too, so they made it, what, from four to two to five to two. And that, you know, with that bullpen, that’s, you know, that’s a good formula for, for a, for a win, for sure.
Joe Noga: Yeah. We’ll talk about how Travis Bazzana, you know, channeled some of his cricket experience for that, that last run there in a second, but just to, just to finish up. But, you know, the, the bullpen, about a month ago, things were. It feel. It felt a little chaotic. It felt a little, you know, unsettled in terms of inconsistencies. And you had, you know, Eric Sabrowski giving up consecutive walks and walking in runs and looking pretty awful in that series in Minnesota a couple weeks ago. But, you know, right now there’s, there’s a better feeling around the bullpen, a little bit more consistent. I guess the, the All Star break kind of helps with that, getting these guys some rest.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah. You know, I think Holderman has made a big difference to this team, Joe. I mean, they really didn’t know what they were getting. I think when they signed him and brought him to camp on a minor league deal, you know, he was, he was more like a long guy or, you know, he was, he was, you know, he was. That’s what you. They brought him in to, you know, be pitch two, three innings in. In, you know, lopsided games one way or the other. And he had a great message to, to Stephen Vogt in spring training. Vogt asked him, what do you. What are your goals this year? And he goes, I want to get back into leverage and I want to be a monster. And, you know, he’s. He’s gotten into that kind of that, you know, formerly the Cade Smith role, where you come in, you know, where the fire is the hottest, regardless of the inning. And he did that last night in the six, got a big out and, you know, turned it over to the, you know, to the late inning guys. So, you know, he’s really been a, a big addition to this team.
Joe Noga: Yeah, it’s been, he’s usually you’re not surprised when, when Holderman is the first name that they call out about guys getting up and getting warm and getting loose in a game when, when the Guardians have a lead, you know, before the sixth, seventh or eighth inning going back to Travis Bazzana. His, his check swing single into left field, scored Chase DeLauter. DeLauter, another nice night, two hits and scored a run. But Bazzana, you know, really came out. I believe it was the, the eighth inning, had the check swing, base hit. I asked him after the game, was there a little bit of cricket creeping in there, the Australian, you know, obsession with cricket. And he said he had played it, you know, growing up. His answer was, yeah, maybe there was a little bit, you know, all of a sudden on some left handed breaking balls. And so it was, I believe it was Taylor Rogers pitching to him. Left handed breaking balls. He seems to be stopping his swing. He says, you know, he’s hitting about 800 on check swing, lefty breaking balls. He said you got to check the math on that. But you know, he might be four for five, something like that. But you know, he probably doesn’t want to do that for over the long term. Probably has to make an adjustment there. But right now with the results being what they are, he said he’ll take it.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, you know, he manipulates a bat. We’ve seen him do that since spring training. That, that kind of, you know, half swing and he stops the swing. We’ve seen him go to right field, we’ve seen him go to left field with it. And it’s just kind of a little international flavor brought to, you know, how he, how he swings the bat. It’s, it’s, it’s an interesting skill set and you know, he’s using all his, all his talent to, you know, put the ball in play and it doesn’t matter how you swing it, where it matters where it lands. So. And that was, you know, that was perfectly placed.
Joe Noga: Yeah, you talk about international flavor with that kind of reminds me of the first time I saw Ichiro sort of slap hitting balls to left field and all over the place. Just the way his body sort of feels like it’s bailing out of the batter’s box and halfway down the first baseline already when contact is made. It kind of reminded me of that just occurred to me. But you know, I think Travis Bazzana would take any sort of comparisons to Ichiro at this point. In his career. Another guy, we need to talk about last night who had a pretty nice night. Khalil Watson came off the bench pitch hit for David Frye in that, that sixth inning, got things started with a leadoff double, hustle double and made a really nice catch up against the wall in right field on a deep foul pop to end the game. Crashed into the wall really, you know, showed some athleticism, ran bases really well. But unfortunately, I think the numbers game is going to catch up with him here as after the game we saw him in the clubhouse, he didn’t want to talk to reporters and we thought that was a little unusual. And then a few minutes later, we saw him shaking hands, giving out hugs and talking about maybe hitting home runs down in aaa Columbus. It looks like Khalil Watson has been optioned. The Guardians haven’t made any moves official. They haven’t announced anything as of yet, but we’re expecting a roster move at some point prior to tonight’s game against the Twins. Hoynsie, what do you think about Khalil Watson coming out playing his heart out last night and, and the reward is a trip back down to Columbus.
Paul Hoynes: This is the cruelest game, Joe. It really is. I mean, you can have a game like Watson had last night and get your, you know, tell him and get told after the game that you’re, you know, pack your car, you’re going back to Columbus. So just, it’s a fact of life, you know, players have to get used to it. And when, you know, you’re, you’re in that area where you don’t, you know, you still have options left and that’s part of the reason you’re on the club, that you’re on the 20, the 40 man roster that gives the team flexibility. And you know, when you come up and you do well, that, that helps you, obviously, but it doesn’t insulate you from a move like this. And obviously, hopefully, you know, you keep your head up, you don’t go down and sulk. I mean, there’s plenty of guys that have been up and down this season. You know, Petey Halpin, you know, guys have ridden the shuttle for, for, you know, quite a few times this year. So got to get used to it. You got to get some tough skin, you know, toughen up your skin and toughen up your, you know, you got to, you just got to live with it and, you know, and when you go down, you make them call you back up by, by the way you play.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And you mentioned Petey Halpin. I think the reason why, you know, it’s Watson getting sent down and not Petey Halpin at this point is that rule that we talked about yesterday about the. If you’ve been optioned back and forth five times in the same season, they have to expose you to waivers in order to get you back down again. And, you know, I think that might play a big factor in this, in this decision here to send Watson out instead of Halpin at this point, because they won’t have to deal with that. But you talk about a guy I didn’t even realize that he played. He’s already played an 88 game. I mean, that’s half the season he’s been up here. 21 hits, a home run, 11 RBIs, nine stolen bases, hitting.239 with a.605 OPS. Watson, you know, he’s. He’s done. He’s done himself a lot of favors just by, you know, coming up here and performing, getting some clutch hits, winning some games for this team. But like you said, the, the numbers are, you know, make it, make it kind of tough. I would imagine, you know, if tomorrow was September 1st, if tomorrow they had the ability to expand the rosters, he would be the first guy that they, that they called up and added to the roster because he does add some stuff to the, to, to their dog.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean, he, you know, they, they were able to, you know, win a couple of games against the White Sox because of him. You know what? He drove in six runs in, in the, in that series in Chicago. You know, he, he saved them in that series. So, you know, he, he’s done a lot of good things. They’re not going to forget about him. Hopefully, you know, he, you know, everybody’s gone down. Even Jose Ramirez has got sent down. So. And the key is to keep playing hard and you’ll, and they’ll, you know, you’ll get.
Joe Noga: You’ll.
Paul Hoynes: You. But, yeah, I. Watson has played well. He’s, you know, he’s kind of ridden that roller coaster. Hot start, then he cools off. But, you know, he’s got a lot of tools, Joe. He’s got, he can, he can go get the ball in the outfield. He’s got a good arm and he can run. You know, he’s not afraid to steal and he’s got some power. So, yeah, just, you know, a solid player and, you know, he’s got nothing, you know, I mean, he’s done nothing but impress people. I would, I would imagine, at least from the Outside looking in.
Joe Noga: It’s funny you mentioned Jose Ramirez there because, you know, with. With Watson looking like he’s being sent out, that leads to speculation. Who. Who’s ready to come back, who’s ready to rejoin the roster. You’ve got Angel Martinez. He homered in his rehab appearance for Double Akron on Tuesday night. But it seems to me, and seems to a lot of people, like, you know, Martinez might need a couple more days just to build up the. The endurance to be able to come back and be ready to play nine innings when he’s. He’s ready to go, coming off of that fractured foot. But it’s Jose Ramirez, you know, looked like he’s getting closer and closer. You talked to him in the, The. The locker room prior to Tuesday’s game. He was showing off some new batting gloves. What was the latest on Jose Ramirez? Just from your point of view? Talking about he was getting ready to take some swings in the batting cage?
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, he was in a great mood, Joe. He was. He was fired up. He said, these guys don’t need me. They just hit seven home runs Monday night. They don’t. They don’t need me back. But I think. I think he’s getting really, really close, Joe. You, you know, he showed us his new batting gloves. They’re all padded, you know, from. To protect him when he swings from the, you know, the hamate bone surgery that he had on his left hand. And he was going to test them out in a cage, but, you know, he just, you know, he, He. He kind of. I think he. I think he’s on the verge, Joe. He, you know, he’s trying to. He doesn’t want to, you know, jump out there real fast. He doesn’t want to do anything that, you know, could lead to a permanent injury or, you know, really set a major setback. But I think he’s ready to go.
Joe Noga: Well, Stephen Vogt said, you know, he would be, that Jose would be sort of guiding and leading the discussion on when he was ready to go and, you know, whether or not he was going to need a rehab assignment. It looks, you know, like he definitely did not need. Need a rehab assignment. Right now, all signs are really pointing to Jose Ramirez being activated, being ready to play in tonight’s game. If that’s the case, you know, what does that do to this lineup that, you know, is starting, you know, is. Is in the. The early stages of starting to look like it’s maybe figuring some things out. You know, maybe it could be the, you know, facing the Twins for the the second time in a couple of weeks and familiarity there. But this lineup looks a lot deeper with Jose Ramirez batting in that number two spot.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah. And, you know, with Kwon, you know, returning to form, you’ve got Jose Ramirez in the number two spot. You know, you’ve got the Lauder after that, you’ve got Rocchio, you’ve got, you know, Bazzana, you know, just a lot of options. You know, he makes that lineup so much deeper and so much more, you know, flexible with being a switch hitter. Just really kind of an interesting move. If they do activate Jose. And the key is how’s he going to play Joe? How, you know, because, you know, for. For most of the first, you know, when he was active, you know, he was kind of having. Struggling a little bit. He, you know, he still got the, you know, among the team leaders in all key categories, but he wasn’t really the Jose Ramirez we’re used to seeing.
Joe Noga: Right. And how much of that can be attributed to, you know, he wasn’t necessarily feeling exactly with the hammy phone. So, you know, if that was affecting things and that’s been corrected, you know, that would be a positive sign. And maybe we. I just caution, you know, fans, once he’s back in the lineup to maybe take it a little. Take it a little easy and understand that he’s. He’s going to be working his way back from an injury. We, we can’t expect all of his returns from hamate surgery to include grand slams and three runs, home runs, like he miraculously did in 2019. But, you know, just his presence alone can. Can really add to and really help this lineup, like you said. But it also, you know, begs the question. Now you’ve got Stephen Kwan looking like he’s back to form and he’s back on the. In the leadoff spot. You bat Jose Ramirez second, because that’s the, the envogue thing to do now is in. In the league is to bat your. Your superstar. In the number two hole, Chase DeLauter looks pretty comfortable and he’s got, what, the major league lead and total hits since, you know what, since his return June 28, I think, you know, the top three guys in that lineup are clicking. The name you’re leaving out there is Travis Bazzana. Where do you bat him? You drop him down below the cleanup hitter and you drop him to number five. Where can Travis Bazzana make the biggest impact now that Jose Ramirez appears like he’s coming back?
Paul Hoynes: That’s. That’s a great question. What he hit Six last night and you know, had had a hit, reached base three times, scored a run, drove in a run, stole the base. You know, I don’t think it matters where you play this guy. Joe, he’s going to be, you know, he’s going to have his moments where he’s a really productive offensive player. He’s going to have some ups and downs because he’s a rookie. But you know, we’ve seen, we’ve seen what Bazzana, the influence Bazzana can have and you know, eventually I would think he, he’s going to work his way up to the, to the top of the lineup somewhere. I don’t know how you, how you fit that, you know, how you make it all work, but, you know, it’s never a problem when you have too many good players.
Joe Noga: Yeah. Too many names to stick in the top of that lineup. That would make things interesting, I guess. You know, you can also continue to move Stephen Kwan around, but Kwan’s at bats. The last couple of games, the lead off at bats in the first inning have been so impressive. A nine pitch at bat on Monday, 10 pitch at bat on Tuesday. You know, Stephen Vogt said after the game, if you make that starting pitcher the first guy throw 10 pitches in that first at bat, you know, most pitchers are penciled in. Last night was an opener, but most pitchers are penciled in for 100 pitches in a game. You’re making them throw a tenth of their pitches in that first at bat. That’s a pretty good omen for the rest of the game. And so far in this series, Stephen Kwan’s done it twice. So yeah, just another way that he impacts the game. And like we said, there’s, there’s a lot of options now maybe at the top of that lineup. Speaking of rookies, I want to go back and just mention a story that we, we didn’t talk about coming off of that historic seven home run game. Petey Halpin, Grant Fink. You talked to Petey Halpin before Tuesday’s game in the clubhouse. We noticed something on the replay as, as Petey Halpin after he hit his first major league home run as he made it back to the, to the dugout, haul off and slapped Grant Fink, the hitting coach, right in the face. Now this is something that I think a lot of frustrated fans who have watched a lot of 31 games this season, a lot of, a lot of fans might, might have wanted, might have wanted to see Petey Halpin slap Grant pink maybe more than once on the way in, but I think, yeah, maybe that’s a little misplaced anger. PD Halpin not doing it out of anger. This was, this was, had, had been building for a while.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, this was choreographed, Joe. This was, you know, we were talking to a Halpin before last, last night’s game and he said that, you know, Fink always slaps him in the face before, before every game. I guess maybe it’ll wake him up to get him, get him riled up or get him fired up for the game. And he said about a month ago, he said, when I hit my first big league home run, I’m going to slap you in the face. And Fink was all for it. He goes, I’m looking forward to it. Do it, do it. And so, you know, in the second inning Tuesday, Monday night, he, you know, Halpin hits a two run homer and as he’s circling the bases, he’s looking in the dugout, the Cleveland dugout, and, and Fink is turning his hat around like a catcher putting his hat on backwards. And then when he getting ready and then when he, he approached the dugout steps helping, he saw Fink out there with his chin out and then he smacked him. So I asked him, I asked him, well, did you do that because you hit two home runs, did you do that the second time too? And he goes, no, I don’t think I’m going to do.
Joe Noga: There’s only, only a one time slap bet like, like on how I met your brother. I guess the, the chemistry is really good when you can walk around slapping your teammates in the face and your coaches. So, you know, a bit of an unusual celebration to say the least. But you know, all, all smiles afterwards, not like a, any sort of animosity or anything like that. These are those, those little behind the scenes moments where, you know, if we hadn’t noticed it on the, on the replay, it might have gone unspoken. But then you notice as he’s, as he’s rounding the bases, he’s sort of sticking his, his, his hand under his chin. Like a, like keep your chin up sort of gesture. Yeah. So, you know, you start to piece things together and it was actually really, really kind of interesting. But the PD help. It doesn’t strike me as the walk around slapping guys in the face kind of guy, really low key, you know what Northern California guy, just sort of a chill vibe out of him. But you know, really interesting to see that this was the way they went about celebrating Petey Halpin’s first big league home run. And he is that the most unusual way you’ve ever seen a guy celebrate his, his first big league home run was by slapping a coach.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that, that is right up there, Joe. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before. So, yeah, that was, that’s number one with the star with.
Joe Noga: All right, looking at tonight’s game, game three of a four game series. Slade Cecconi on the mound. Bailey Ober takes the mound for Minnesota. Cleveland’s put themselves in a good position here with two wins in the first game. Game of this two first two games of the series. You know, they, they’re really taking advantage of the opportunity to sort of put some distance between themselves and Minnesota in the AL Central race. What do you think the chances are Jose returns tonight? If, you know, if you were betting your house on tonight, Hoynsy, what, what do you think about Jose?
Paul Hoynes: I don’t know. I might bet, you know, one Bedroom on that. I don’t know, Joe, but no, I think the chances are good. You know, they, obviously they have to make a move. It’s either Jose or Martinez, you know, I would think, but, you know, depending on, you know, Jose is kind of setting the tone for this. So I, I think if he thought he was ready after taking, you know, hitting in the cage yesterday, I, I would think they’d give him the green light. I think they’re, they’re, they’re anxious to get him back in that line.
Joe Noga: Well, we’ve got Queens. You’ve got a big rest of the week here, a big Dayton Cooperstown coming up. So we’re going to be off with the podcast for the rest of the week, but we will be back possibly sometime early next week on Monday to talk about the big weekend and to talk about what the Guardians were able to do against the Twins and the start of a road trip in Tampa Bay. We’ll, we’ll talk to you then.
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