CLEVELAND (AP) — Brayan Rocchio hit a walk-off homer in the ninth inning after connecting on a tying grand slam in the fourth, rallying the Cleveland Guardians to a 7-6 comeback victory over the Detroit Tigers in the first game of a split doubleheader on Friday.
With the win, the Guardians remained in the final American League wild-card position.
Rocchio led off the ninth with a homer to left field off Drew Sommers (1-4), giving Cleveland six unanswered
runs to end the contest after falling behind 6-1 in the third. His third career walk-off home run followed his first grand slam.
Cade Smith (4-1) pitched the ninth for the win, which was the Guardians’ third in seven games on their critical homestand. The Tigers fell to 4-15 since Aug. 14.
Detroit pushed its lead out to 6-1 in the third on Spencer Torkelson's solo homer off Slade Cecconi before the Guardians erupted for five in the fourth. Travis Bazzana had an RBI single before Rocchio sent Keider Montero’s pitch 366 feet over the fence in right.
Rookies Max Clark and Ben Malgeri each had two-run singles in the first, when the Tigers scored four times against Logan Allen in his first start since July 18. Gleyber Torres had two singles and two runs in the first two innings.
Montero allowed six runs in four innings, while Allen gave up five in 2 1/3 innings. Clark had three singles.
The first pitch was delayed by 1 hour and 4 minutes because of rain.
Tigers LHP Andrew Sears (0-1, 6.75 ERA) faces Guardians LHP Foster Griffin (15-4, 3.21) in the second game. National League All-Star Griffin is 3-1 in five starts with Cleveland.
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