Takeaways From The Cleveland Guardians Series Loss To Padres

The Cleveland Guardians' start to the new season is not going as they wanted. After winning their opening series last weekend, the Guardians were swept in a three-game set by the San Diego Padres.

There's a lot to break down from this series. Here are three takeaways from the last three games.

Guardians Starters Must Throw Strikes

A key theme for Cleveland's starters in their series against the Padres was struggling to find the strike zone and losing command of their pitches.

Luiz Ortiz issued four walks, Logan Allen gave up five free passes to first base, and Ben Lively finished his start with two walks.

Against an elite lineup like the Padres', starters can't give away free base runners. San Diego took advantage of those free passes, and the scoreboard reflected that.

Command and pounding the strike zone aren't new areas of focus for Cleveland's pitching staff, but it still has to be an area of focus moving forward.

Guardians Have To Take Advantage Of Scoring Opportunities

The lack of Cleveland's offense was certainly an alarming takeaway from this series, but it's not like the Guardians weren't getting base runners.

They did record 18 hits during the series but also left 19 runners on base over the three games.

An even more concerning stat is that the Guardians hit .142 (2-for-14) with runners in scoring position. Both of those hits came in the second half of the series finale.