Guardians win in extras and Stephan's pitches are nasty, a breakdown
What Happened
In a tense extra-innings matchup between the Cleveland Guardians and the Seattle Mariners, right-handed reliever Trevor Stephan takes the mound for the Guardians. He immediately showcases his nasty repertoire, striking out the Mariners' batter with a series of sweeping sliders. However, the Guardians intentionally walk star hitter Jose Ramirez, bringing up a left-handed batter. Stephan adjusts his approach, mixing in some well-placed fastballs to jam the lefty. Despite loading the bases, Stephan induces an inning-ending double play, though the Guardians do concede a run. The Guardians fans react with a mixture of relief and frustration, as this has been a common occurrence for their team this season. Stephan's next battle is with Mariners outfielder AJ Pollock. The two engage in a classic pitcher-hitter duel, with Stephan working his entire arsenal - fastball, slider, and splitter-changeup. Pollock is clearly baffled by the movement and location of Stephan's pitches, swinging and missing several times. The crowd grows more and more excited with each swing and miss. Finally, Stephan unleashes a devastating splitter-changeup to strike out Pollock and end the inning. Guardians manager Terry Francona is visibly pleased with his reliever's performance, as Stephan has used all three of his plus pitches to keep the Mariners' hitters off-balance. In the bottom of the ninth, Guardians catcher Cal Raleigh steps to the plate. Stephan wastes no time, blowing him away with four consecutive inside fastballs to seal the victory for the Guardians. The home crowd erupts in cheers, appreciating Stephan's dominant outing and the Guardians' hard-fought win in extra innings. This thrilling finish capped off a back-and-forth affair between these two American League playoff contenders. The Guardians' bullpen, anchored by the electric Trevor Stephan, made the critical plays to secure the victory and continue their push for the postseason.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentMariners and Guardians tied in extras
one sweeping slider this breakdown is
brought to you by DraftKings another
sweeping slider strike two and a third
one strike three just sweeping slider
after sweeping slider but they
intentionally walk Jose Ramirez who bats
from the left side and now a Lefty's up
and the sweeping sliders aren't working
as well there's a little fastball
another fastball and it's ball four
bases are loaded and the lefties coming
up and they say yeah we'll take the
righty out we'll bring the Lefty in we
need an out here jams them with the
fastball they're gonna try and go back
to that gets it again out at home and
double
play no go ahead run
scores from third on that play everyone
moves up these fans are distraught like
oh my God we've had too many of these
already in the season so they get me out
at home and then this is interesting
because the catcher he said I thought he
was in the Baseline and as you can see
he is like the Baseline is stupid and
I've made a lot of videos on that but he
is right there but the thing about it is
the throw didn't hit him so oh no not
again this sucks
oh boy so yeah basically if if the
catcher
throws this at the runner which
sometimes they are taught to do he's
clearly throwing it around the runner
and if the first baseman
was a lefty and the glove was on his
right hand maybe this is a much easier
play
but if he throws the ball at the runner
here it's going to get called for
interference because he's out of the
Baseline and he interfered but the fact
he didn't throw the ball at the runner
and hit him
it doesn't get called and the runs
scored one of the weirder Dumber quirks
in in the interference down the Baseline
you have to actually interfere you can't
just be doing it and never get in the
way
so it's actually smarter for the catcher
to throw it kind of bounce it at his
feet if you really trust the umpires and
think you're gonna get it but that's not
a game you want to play either
anyway they get out of this inning
there's a nice little slider from the
Lefty another nice little slider did he
go did he go yes he went
one two and a third one and he gets him
this that bat between Trevor Steven and
ah Johannes Suarez is actually the whole
reason I kind of wanted to do this
breakdown the play earlier is
interesting but Steven's a reliever
that's got three plus pitches and he
throws him pretty equally to right he's
here's the fastball boom top of the Zone
fastball strike one so now off of that
he's gonna try and throw his breaking
pitches his off speed pitches to change
it up a little he goes with a slider
here I believe he misses his spot ends
up being kind of a front door slider but
I don't think that was his intention
they're going to go back to the slider
and the batter thinks about it but
doesn't go here's that pitch again it's
got the movement thinks about it doesn't
go so what do they do well they go
slider again they go let's get him put
it a little more outside let's get him
and they got him so now
it's two and two you've went fastball
slider slider slider what do you throw
here
that's his split change up so that's his
third pitch and I took note that Suarez
didn't really blink he just kind of gave
up on it never really was like that's a
pitch I'm gonna think about it had the
had a nice bite had nice movement but
maybe if you're Steven you scrap that
you say all right that's not fooling him
let's take that out of the repertoire
goes back to the slider and it's smoked
down the line and the fans get excited
but it's a foul ball and this guy
catches it and he's like oh should I
give it to the girl and the guy says yes
definitely give it to the girl and she
says uh oh I'm so little I don't even
care 3-2 now he's seen fastball slider
slider slider change up slider
three two you want to throw a strike you
don't want to throw a wild pitcher pass
ball because the runner on third can
score the runner moves the third in the
middle of those pitches
so you go fastball again
not the spot the catcher wanted him to
throw it but up and in
a nice pitch and he gets a foul ball and
now you got to play something off of
that and I thought he was going to go
slider again because he's thrown four
already instead he goes split finger
change up and gets a swing and a miss
and Suarez didn't even blink at that
pitch the first time through so I
thought it was a ballsy 3-2 pitch
because you're throwing this for a ball
and it just tumbles down and away and
gets the strike out look at the fastball
slider split finger
combo here
crazy
super fun super cool
and he used all three of them nicely in
that at bat to keep them off balance
keep them swinging and missing it was
nice and then the last at-bat of the
game you got
Cal Riley app catcher and he's just
going one pitch I'll go back to the
beginning he just says one pitch this
entire at bat inside fastball
inside fastball inside fastball 0-2
inside fastball one and two inside
fastball James them game over
so in one at bat to the righty he goes
through the whole repertoire of pitches
then the Lefty comes up and just goes
I'll just throw my inside fastball and
get you out and he does and this video
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