Allen solid, but ‘flat’ Guardians struggle in field in finale

HOUSTON — This was the Logan Allen that the Guardians needed to see on Thursday.

The bullpen had been depleted after the club played in four consecutive extra-inning games for the first time since 1910. The position players, too, were taxed from the extra workload. For a team that’s struggled to get quality innings from its starting staff, Allen was everything Cleveland could’ve asked for in the series finale against the Astros.

But the toll of the past four games caught up to the Guardians. Even though Allen was solid through 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) with five strikeouts and one walk, it was his defense behind him that came up short, resulting in an 8-2 Guardians loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

“I thought tonight we were a little flat. Expectedly,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “This has been a long trip, a lot of close games. It’s not an excuse by any means. We need to play better than we did tonight.”

The Guardians jumped out to a two-run lead in the top of the third, but when the bottom half of the frame came around, the wheels suddenly fell off the cart.

The third

Everything started with the wonky pop up that should’ve been caught in foul territory, but instead was caught in the rafters and never came down. Rather than an out, the Astros led off the frame with a single. Three batters later, with one out and two men on, Allen got José Altuve to pop up in foul territory. Both Josh and Bo Naylor raced to catch it. Both made it in plenty of time. But neither communicated and the ball dropped in between them. The at-bat continued and Altuve picked up a single.

Eventually, the bases were loaded and the only run the Astros pushed across the plate that inning was on a passed ball by the youngest Naylor on a 91.9 mph fastball that was just high out of the strike zone.

“Those things happen,” Vogt said. “Not very often with Bo. Not very often with our catchers, but they do happen. It’s frustrating.”

The sixth

With one out, Jeremy Peña sent a fly ball into deep center field off of Allen. Gabriel Arias, who was playing center, had a lot of ground to cover, but easily chased the ball down. But when the ball came down, it hit off the end of his glove and fell onto the warning track, allowing Peña to get a triple instead of sending him back to the dugout.

“I don’t feel the difficulty to adjust to different positions,” Arias, a natural infielder, said of playing center field through team interpreter Agustin Rivero. “It’s not good that it happened to me, but things are going to keep happening to everybody.”

Allen struck out the next batter he saw, but instead of being out of the inning, he had another batter to face. That hitter – Jon Singleton – took him deep for a two-run homer.

Arias was in center for Tyler Freeman, who had the day off. Vogt has been trying to get everyone as consistent of playing time as possible, which has meant that Arias has needed to be versatile. Last year, he saw time in right when needed, but this year, he’s now played three games in center.

“To be honest, somehow I feel more comfortable in center field than right field when I was playing there last year,” Arias said.

The seventh

Again, Arias was tested. On a ball hit to his backhand, Arias attempted to make a sliding play instead of letting the ball fall and getting in front of it. The ball trickled away from him, finding the warning track, and Jake Meyers was awarded a triple that immediately turned into a run on an Altuve single in the next at-bat.

“I mean those are two tough plays,” Vogt said. “He made great routes to both of them, just didn’t complete the catch. … We feel very comfortable with him out there. I still do.”

This isn’t how the Guardians would’ve preferred to end this gritty and grueling road trip. It certainly wasn’t the way the team wanted to reward Allen for his efforts on the rubber. But now, the club is focused on getting back to Cleveland and immediately hitting the reset button.

“That’s a big part of our identity is playing defense,” Allen said, “and we’ll get back on track.”