Guardians’ bats continue to stall, but Vogt is seeing good flashes 

CLEVELAND — Anticipation swelled within Progressive Field in the ninth inning on Tuesday, when a fly ball off the bat of Carlos Santana carried out toward the wall in left-center field. The 39-year-old put a good swing on it, but the 370-foot drive fell into the glove of Reds left fielder Will Benson on the warning track.

Santana’s flyout marked the end of the Guardians’ 1-0 loss to the Reds, which put a bow on a tough night offensively amid a tough stretch for Cleveland. The Guardians (34-32) are mired in their worst 15-game stretch of the season. They dropped to 5-10 over their past 15 games, dating to their 5-0 loss to the Tigers on May 25.

“Mentally, we have to keep the fight,” Santana said. “We have to think one day at a time and play the best baseball we can.”

The Guardians tallied just three hits and one walk against Reds starter Andrew Abbott, who threw a shutout. The left-hander is having a stellar season (1.87 ERA), but Cleveland’s recent offensive struggles also continued.

Entering Tuesday, the Guardians had averaged 3.47 runs per game over their previous 15 games, which was tied for 27th in the Majors over that stretch. They ranked 21st in average (.236), 17th in on-base percentage (.310), 25th in slugging percentage (.362) and 21st in OPS (.671).

Over that same span, the Guardians had a 25.1 percent strikeout rate (seventh worst), though their walk rate (8.7) was tied for 12th. However, 82 of their 117 hits in that span were singles, a 70.1 percent clip, the eighth highest in MLB.

“We’re still finding our identity offensively,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said Tuesday afternoon. “We haven’t really caught fire and gone. It’s kind of been treading water offensively. But we have some guys that are having some very good years.

“It’s just finding ways to get those innings when we get things going to find that big hit.”

The Guardians had a solid May; they averaged 4.33 runs per game (13th in the Majors) and had a 98 wRC+ (tied for 18th). But they’ve scored four or fewer runs in each game during their 3-6 start to June. They have run into starters such as Carlos Rodón, Max Fried, Hunter Brown, Abbott, Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in late May. You, of course, have to beat who’s in front of you.

“We see flashes of us being a really good team,” Vogt said before the loss. “We’re just not winning games. I don’t think we’re playing bad baseball. I just think we’re not reaching our full potential. And we’re going to get there. We’re going to get there. It’s a matter of time.”

There’s a lot of season left, and Santana nearly delivered the big hit on Tuesday. Cincinnati also took away extra bases on two other occasions. Center fielder TJ Friedl made a leaping catch on a David Fry drive in the fourth inning. In the seventh, Jake Fraley robbed José Ramírez with a full-extension dive on a line drive hit toward the right-field corner.

The Guardians had a chance against Abbott in the ninth; Steven Kwan drew a leadoff walk and Fry worked a 3-0 count, before grounding into a 6-4-3 double play. Ramírez singled to give Santana a shot.

“We saw him a couple weeks ago. I thought his stuff was sharper tonight,” Vogt said. “He was hitting his spots with the fastball, the changeup was really good tonight, and [he] mixed in the breaking balls to the lefties. He just had us off-balance. … We hit some balls hard. Just weren’t able to get anything going. He pitched an outstanding game. He was incredible.”

After Monday’s loss in the series opener, Vogt made a point to say the Guardians didn’t play their brand of baseball. They committed three errors and were outhit 16-7. Tuesday was cleaner.

Starter Slade Cecconi allowed just one run on four hits and one walk over five innings while striking out eight. Center fielder Nolan Jones turned a double play to end the eighth when he snagged a Christian Encarnacion-Strand fly ball and threw out Friedl at the plate to get Jakob Junis out of a bases-loaded one-out jam.

The Guardians are keeping a one-day-at-a-time approach.

“A lot of games left,” Jones said. “Every team goes through this at some point, and I think it’s how quick can we get out of it and hopefully win a game tomorrow and then start our road trip on a hot start.”