{"id":4194,"date":"2023-04-10T15:50:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T22:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportrelay.com\/mlb\/?p=4194"},"modified":"2023-04-10T23:06:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T06:06:50","slug":"cleveland-guardians-prospects-nos-5-and-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportrelay.com\/mlb\/2023\/04\/10\/cleveland-guardians-prospects-nos-5-and-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 100 Countdown: Cleveland Guardians’ Prospects, Nos. 5 and 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

SportRelay.com<\/a> continues our countdown of the Cleveland Guardians<\/strong><\/a>\u2019 top 100 prospects for 2023 with Number 5: Xzavion Curry<\/a> <\/strong>and No.4: George Valera<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Curry competed for a bullpen spot during spring training while Valera had five at-bats and was shut down with a sore right wrist. Curry was strong early, gave up some hits late, and both were sent to Triple-A Columbus.<\/p>\n

Then No. 3 starter Triston McKenzie<\/a><\/strong> got hurt and Curry was added to the opening-day roster.\u00a0 When Zach Plesac<\/a><\/strong> was hit hard in Oakland on April 3, Curry suddenly got the call. He battled for five innings, giving up two runs on three hits without a walk. That held the fort and Cleveland overcame a 6-2 deficit to claim a 12-11 win in 10 innings.<\/p>\n

Manager Terry Francona<\/a><\/strong> and pitching coach Carl Willis<\/a><\/strong> were particularly pleased with Curry saving the bullpen. Francona had trotted out five relievers the previous day in a 6-5 win in Seattle.<\/p>\n

“He competed,” Francona told reporters afterwards. “I mean, fortunately he got some really (early-in-the-count) outs because we were up against it. Me and Carl were looking at it, this early in the year, we’re five games into the season and you’re starting to think, ‘OK, who can we pitch, who can we not pitch?’ But he got us deep enough.”<\/p>\n