Allen recovers from early homers, liner to head in Guardians return

CLEVELAND -- In the Guardians’ 7-6, extra-innings loss to the D-backs on Monday, we learned that you can have your best and worst start all in the same game. How is that possible, you ask? Logan Allen is here to demonstrate.

First, let’s start with some necessary background. Allen entered the series opener with the fifth-worst ERA among the 115 Major League starters who have thrown at least 80 innings this season. This was a big reason why the Guardians optioned him to Triple-A Columbus just before the All-Star break.

But Cleveland needed a starter on Monday, so it was time to see if Allen could right the ship this time around.

At first, the ship was sinking.

Ketel Marte smashed the first pitch of the game over the 19-foot wall at Progressive Field to give Arizona an immediate lead. Just four pitches later, Allen surrendered a second homer, as Gabriel Moreno went back-to-back with Marte over the same left-field fence.

It didn’t seem like things could get any worse for Allen and yet they did.

After a single and a double play gave him two outs in the inning, Allen faced a scary moment against Randal Grichuk. A 105 mph laser came right back up the middle, heading for Allen’s head. He tried to duck and shield himself with his throwing hand, but the ball just barely clipped his pinky and struck him on the left side of his head. The ball bounced off of him and landed in the middle of center field, as Allen dropped to the ground.

“Yeah, I’ve been hit a few times, obviously this is one of the scariest,” Allen said. “Kind of sat there on a knee for a second, just trying to gather myself and I was like, ‘I think I’m OK.’”

The Guardians’ medical staff hustled onto the field and performed all the necessary concussion protocols. Allen insisted he was fine. He passed all the initial tests. So, he stayed in the game.

“It’s kind of crazy,” catcher Bo Naylor said. “I feel like when that happened, that was the last thing in his mind. It was just kind of getting back out there and going out there, and trying to make good pitches and compete.”

At first, maybe it didn’t seem like the right decision, as Allen proceeded to issue consecutive walks to load the bases. But then, he induced a flyout to end the inning without further damage. That’s when the switch flipped.

Allen sat in the dugout, watching his offense fight right back and knot the score at 2, and he knew he could lock back in.

“One inning doesn’t define an outing,” Allen said. “You always got a chance to pick yourself up and the team’s gonna keep us in it. So, it’s on me to kind of do my job to keep us in it as well.”

Right then, the switch flipped.

Aside from an infield single in the second (that also hit Allen -- this time in the foot) he rolled through the D-backs’ lineup. Starting with the final out of the second, he went on to record 10 straight outs.

“I think he just commanded the zone,” Naylor said. “He had conviction with everything he threw. He was aggressive in-zone, he expanded when he needed to expand and just kind of played that push-pull game, which is really good.”

The biggest takeaway from Allen’s outing was that he didn’t issue another walk after the two in the first. That’s been his biggest issue this season. Not only has he put free runners on base, but it’s led to higher pitch counts, which then leads to shorter outings, which then leads to more work for this bullpen. The domino effect that’s plagued this team all season.

The Guardians know that has to end. Allen knows it, too. That’s why he spent a month in Triple-A trying to work on his efficiency. He proved he could do it after the first inning. And as much as the offense tried to rally around his resilience, forcing extras by tying the game in the ninth, Cleveland came up short.

But for Allen, the bigger win was that he felt OK after the game. Plus, he was back in the Majors.

“Shoot, I guess when I’m there in Triple-A, I’d rather be up here even if it’s taking balls off the head, giving up homers,” Allen said with a smirk. “But just giving the team chances to win is all I’m trying to do, so I was happy to do that.”