N&N: Guardians hitters made April fools of Mariners

Apr 1, 2023 - 1:14 PM

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Is there a more 2020s-era Guardians way to score in a baseball game than a bunt hit leading into some defensive miscues and overly aggressive baserunning? We saw glimpses of that disgusting brand of baseball in the opener, but last night it was back out in full force as the Guardians offense scored nine runs without a single home run and only two extra-base hits.

It was a fun game overall — and Hunter Gaddis even looked promising at times — but friends, I missed a good chunk of time distracted by MLB’s 3D replay system in the MLB app. Somewhere around 11:25 p.m. I discovered that you can actually “watch” games with this crude 3D animation that uses real-time Hawk-Eye tracking to show you everything that is going on around the field, even away from the broadcast cameras. You can see hits pop off, and everything else down to players meeting between innings.

At one point I watched Julio Rodríguez fidgeting in the outfield simply because I could.

And I even caught an infield meeting between innings, complete with José Ramírez walking away with maximum swagger after their chat. My favorite thing is how the tracking interprets José’s posture when he’s standing.

Currently, it’s only available for MLBtv free games of the day, both live and on select replays. Hopefully, in the future, it comes to all games and plays when it’s a little more refined and user-friendly because it’s a lot of fun to play around with and could have a lot of utility when it comes to seeing what happened everywhere on a play.

This isn’t an ad or anything, I just think it’s neat. Now onto the baseball.

Guardians 9, Mariners 4

Box Score | Game Thread | CTC Recap | MLB Recap
Just a great game for the Guardians from start to finish. Even when Gaddis looked shaky on the mound early on he worked out of some jams with that wiffle ball of a changeup. Steven Kwan racked up the RBIs and pitch counts of his opposing pitchers while everyone else ground Robbie Ray and Seattle’s relievers to dust. The boys, as they say, are back.

Today’s baseball: @ Mariners, 9:40 p.m. ET (RHP Aaron Civale vs. RHP Logan Gilbert)

Cleveland Guardians news

Around the Corner Podcast: Episode 59 | Covering the Corner
It was a slow news day, so you should check out the latest episode of Around the Corner where Matt Schlichting and Brian Hemminger preview the 2023 minor-league season and answer a bunch of listener questions.

Around the league

• Here’s an article that features the words “Jake Bauers” and “homers” in the headline.
• Anthony Rendon grabbed an A’s fan and MLB isn’t happy.
• The Padres signed Jake Cronenworth to a seven-year extension.
• MiLB’s unionization is a big deal.
• The Giants signed Gary Sanchez to a minor-league deal.