CLEVELAND - Despite losing their manager for the remainder of Friday night’s game against Chicago, the Cleveland Guardians held on to a 4-2 win over the visiting White Sox.
Terry Francona sustained his second ejection in less than a week after a 4th-inning ruling at second base was overturned, in which Brayan Rocchio - trying for second on a hit to right field - went from safe to out after a close play that ended in Tim Anderson appearing to alter Rocchio’s hand from the base on a tag attempt.
Francona commented on the call and the toss - his second of the last week against the White Sox - while expressing his frustrations with the overturned ruling.
“I thought…they gave [Chicago] too much time. Way too much time. That’s why I thought he was going over to their dugout, to tell them they can’t challenge.”
“He” was home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman - part of Friday night’s crew and the one who threw Francona out of the game. Francona would then explain his frustration with third base umpire Malachi Moore, who made the initial safe call at second.
“When they overturned it, I let Bruce kind of explain it to me, and as I’m going back, I yelled at Malachi, ‘You’ve got to get that right.’ When you make a call that hideous, you can’t be arrogant. You can’t be throwing your hands up in the air. He was two feet from there! He needs to practice more! That’s as bad a call as you can make.”
Francona continued: “If you’re going to do that, you can’t just turn your back and walk away. You’ve got to have an answer.”
The Guardians would answer in the bottom of the fifth, as Gimenez - who finished the night with three total hits, on his homer and two doubles - roped a 2-run shot off former Cleveland right-hander Mike Clevinger (4-5) out to right field.
The score gave Guardians lefty Logan Allen (5-4) the advantage in a six-inning, four-hit, two-run effort, which snapped Allen’s six-game winless streak at Progressive Field.
José Ramirez led off the Guardians’ scoring in the bottom of the opening frame with an RBI single to score Gimenez, while Myles Straw scored on a Clevinger wild pitch in the bottom of the 2nd to make it 2-0 Cleveland. The White Sox responded, however, by piling on Allen early in the top of the third. Elvis Andrus roped an RBI double to left, while Andrew Benintendi walked with the bases loaded to tie the game.
Allen would recover, however, and settle down the White Sox in order to end the inning.
“He was walking a tightrope there,” Francona stated after Friday’s game. “But, he competes. We had to get [Michael] Kelly up in the third, and he kind of wiggled out of it with just giving up the two [runs]…kid competes like crazy.”
Following the completion of Allen’s night, Enyel De Los Santos and Trevor Stephen each posted scoreless relief efforts, while Emmanuel Close wrapped up his 29th save of the season to secure the victory in the 9th.
The Guardians (54-56) will face the White Sox (43-68) on Saturday (7:10 p.m. start), with Noah Syndergaard (1 run in 5.1 innings in his Jul. 31 Guardians debut) facing Chicago right-hander Michael Kopeck (4-10, 4.49 ERA).