CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cleveland Guardians really love playing baseball.
So much so, they continue to play extra innings.
David Fry homered in the ninth to tie the game and Brayan Roccio won it in the 10th with an RBI single to give the Guardians a 5-4 win in 10 innings over the Tigers at Progressive Field.
Here’s our top news and notes from the homestand finale.
Extra work – The Guardians improved it 6-2 in extra innings this season with Wednesday afternoon’s victory over Detroit. “We like to play the close ones,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “You know that it's going to be a tight division all year. Obviously that's a long way away to be talking about that, but every time you get a chance to win a series from a divisional opponent, it's a big thing for us.” Cleveland walked off for the third time this season and improved to 4-0 at home in series rubber matches in 2024. “It's just kind of who we are as a team,” Fry said. “This group is, I mean, a few guys get added in, but a lot of these guys have played together for a long, long time and just one of those things, I mean, we talk about all the time we're down and it's just like, yeah, we're probably going to win tonight no matter what the score is. And even before the game, you're just walking in, you're like, yeah, we feel like we're going to win the series today. It's just the confidence we have as a group and just the belief we have in one another.”
Saving the day – Rocchio’s game-winning RBI single will get the headlines, and rightfully so, but it was his heads up play in the top of the 10th on a ground ball that saved the day. “Just a heads up play by Rocchio right there to get that out,” Vogt said. Rocchio fielded the bouncer off the bat of Tigers pinch hitter Ryan Vilade and caught automatic runner Javier Baez off second base with a throw to second baseman Andres Gimenez for the first out of the inning. “Once I got the ball and I saw Baez was sneaking in a little bit and as soon as I saw Gimenez on the base, I just took the decision to throw there,” Rocchio said through team interpreter Agustin Rivero. Rocchio slapped a single to center field after the Tigers moved center fielder Wenceel Perez to the right side of the infield to win the game.
Fry for the tie – Fry forced extra innings in the bottom of the ninth by going the other way with a one out, opposite field solo home run down the right field line to tie the game at 4. “I had an at-bat earlier that I thought I hit the ball way harder and it got caught barely at the warning track,” Fry said, “and then I hit that one. I was kind of hoping it would go foul. The right fielder would miss it, and then saw it bouncing in the stands. I was like, all right, pretty cool.”
Bibee bounced – The afternoon for Guardians starter Tanner Bibee started well but didn’t last long. Bibee struck out the side to begin the game, ending the Tigers streak of leading off the game with home runs at two. Bibee ran into trouble in the fourth when he surrendered four runs on four hits, ending his day after throwing 82 pitches, 54 for strikes. “I feel like I threw the ball well, but that’s how baseball goes sometimes,” Bibee said. “Just kind of a tough inning just blew up the entire day.” Fry’s home run got Bibee off the hook and prevented him from suffering his second straight loss.
4 in 4th – The Tigers scored all of their runs and took a 4-2 lead by sending eight men to the plate in the top of the fourth. Tigers DH Colt Keith tied the game at 2 with a one-out, two-run single to right center. Third baseman Zach McKinstry delivered an RBI double to right and Baez a sacrifice fly to right off Bibee to bring home the third and fourth runs of the inning. “I feel like it's mostly me shooting myself in the foot rather than anything,” Bibee said. “All the hits today, I think I give up, was it four in that fourth inning? I think something like that goes single, single, double, double. So at that point it's just death by a thousand cuts.”
Light a spark – Rookie Kyle Manzardo has a batting average. Manzardo pinch hit for third baseman Gabriel Arias in the bottom of the seventh and picked up his first MLB hit with a sinking single down the left field line. “It's a big weight off the shoulders, obviously,” Manzardo said. “Now I feel like I can just go play.” The hit, which was his first in 17 plate appearances, earned the rookie a few playful jabs when he got back to the dugout. “There's always relief in anybody get their first hit,” Vogt said. “But every one of us that's in a Major League dugout knows how hard it is to get your first hit and that it's an accomplishment. The boys were really happy for him, obviously giving him a hard time. ‘Why it take so long?’” All kidding aside, Manzardo’s hit woke up the dugout. “It was one of those things we got off to an early lead and then they took it and it was a little dead in the [dugout],” Fry said. “When Manzo got his first hit, [it] sparked a little energy and then for the rest of the game we were pretty fired up.”
Early lead – Catcher Austin Hedges delivered a two-run single to left with one out in the bottom of the second to break the scoreless tie and get the Guardians on the board. It marked the first time since June 25-28 Hedges had consecutive games with multiple RBI.
Emptying the bench – Vogt used his entire bench in the bottom of the seventh in the span of two batters. Manzardo pinch hit for third baseman Gabriel Arias and was quickly lifted for pinch runner Ramon Laureano. Bo Naylor was set to pinch hit for Hedges but was called back when the Tigers brought on left-handed reliever Joey Wentz, so Tyler Freeman pinch hit for Naylor and flied out to right end the inning. “We took our shot in the seventh,” Vogt said. “We didn't have anything going offensively today. Olson was outstanding for them. Their bullpen is tough. Felt like we needed to try and create some momentum there and Manzo got us going and took a shot and then we had to figure things out defensively. But we're going to try weird stuff. We're going to do some different things to try and generate offense games where we don't really have it rolling and the boys responded big time.” Laureano stayed in center field, Estevan Florial moved from right to left field, Will Brennan from center to right, Freeman stayed on at third base and Fry moved from left field to come in and catch.
Up next – Game 1 of 4 in Chicago against the White Sox Thursday at 7:40. RHP Ben Lively (1-1, 2.08) vs. RHP Erick Fedde (2-0, 3.46).