As the Rivalry Weekend comes to a close, the Ohio Cup returns to Cleveland for now. In Game 3 of this weekend series, the Cleveland Guardians took the series closer and the series from the Cincinnati Reds.
Gavin Williams was given an additional day of rest after switching his spot in the lineup with Joey Cantillo. Gavin had another fantastic quality start today, throwing 6.0 innings with 2R, 8H, 0BB, and 7Ks on 93 pitches, giving the Guards bullpen a nice reprieve to end the week.
Gavin was given plenty
of run support to ease some stress from his start. The Guardians decided to not play Guards Ball and to host a mini-HR derby.
In the bottom of the first José Ramírez drew a one-out walk, a mistake on Brady Singer that would be immediately punished. Chase DeLauter watched a sinker go over the plate for strike one. The next pitch, an inside slider, was launched 371 feet to right field for a quick two-run home run to start the game.
In the bottom of the third, Chase DeLauter hit a one-out single to center to reach base. Kyle Manzardo took a page from CDL and launched his own two-run home run, 382 feet to right.
Brayan Rocchio got in on the home run fun. In the bottom of the fourth, with one-out, Rocchio worked a 2-2 count then slapped a sweeper low and over the plate 388 feet to right center.
In the bottom of the fifth, with a new pitcher on the mound, Kyle Manzardo slapped a first pitch, one-out home run 406 feet to right center for his second home run of the game!
Tim Herrin came on to pitch the seventh inning. His only base runner was a one-out walk to Matt McLain. Other than that, Herrin struck out 3 to retire the side. The bottom of the seventh saw the return of more home runs!
Travis Bazzana hit a one-out single, but was caught stealing second as he over slid the bag. Steven Kwan drew a two-out walk and Angel Martínez tacked on his own two-run home run to put the Guardians up 8-2 over the Reds.
Codi Heuer replaced Tim Herrin in the top of the eighth. He had a similar outing to Herrin’s. His only baserunner was a walk to Sal Stewart. Heuer struck out the first two batters and got a pop out to retire the side with only 13 pitches.
The bottom of the eighth started with Rocchio being hit by pitch. José finally got in on the home runs with a fly ball to center, hit 407 feet to score two more runs.
All of Cleveland’s runs came on home runs today. When is the last time this team has scored double digits, solely on home runs? With this team having felt on the precipice of a offensive breakout for seemingly weeks now, but just falling short, maybe they just needed some warm weather to get things going.
Codi Heuer closed it out for Cleveland, giving up a one-out single and double. Matt McLain ran himself into an out as Blake Dunn made his way to third.
The Guards did allow another run late in the ninth on a misplayed ball by Daniel Schneemann. It didn’t matter for long as Cleveland got the final out to close it on this game.
If today was a preview to what this summer will look like as the heat and humidity climbs, I am quite excited.
