Lovelady has been a disappointment the past 2 times out, but prior to that, from 4/9 - 5/24, he had made 23 appearances and given up a run twice, for an ERA of 1.50 over 18 innings. Even in that stretch, the BBs were too high (11), but he mostly avoided homers (1) and got ground balls (53%).
I agreed with Butera's thinking for slotting him in where he did. He got the Guardians to burn a PH, then 3 out of the next 4 hitters were lefties. Use him in the 6th and, if they PH, get righties vs righties later in the game. Cavalli was on his 3rd time through the order. Cavalli gets the leadoff guy, then you let him go through the next two lefties to go 6 if he gets them, but once the leadoff guy got on, you don't have Cavalli at pitches 90+ facing a bunch of lefties.
TBH, in the GDT, when I looked at the lineup, I predicted that Lovelady would face that stretch at some point. The question was middle innings or late, and Butera went middle innings when his starter had thrown 89 pitches.
