CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The 36th game for the Cleveland Guardians to be decided by a single run this season went in favor of the home team.
The Guardians won, 6-5, in their Fourth of July matchup with the visiting Atlanta Braves, on David Fry's walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The two-out hit was the first for Fry's career in walk-off fashion, and it ended the Braves' winning streak at nine games.
How it happened
Guardians starter Shane Bieber walked a career-high five Braves hitters and left the game with two outs in the fifth. Bieber allowed four earned runs on six hits, with four strikeouts and a wild pitch. Bieber did, however, tie Addie Joss for 14th place in franchise history with 920 strikeouts.
The top of the 5th inning saw the Braves strike for four runs against Bieber. After the Guardians lost a replay challenge on a diving effort by Steven Kwan (who laid out on a sinking liner from Ronald Acuña Jr. that saw the ball pop up before Kwan secured it), Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies crushed his 21st HR of the season to right to tie the game at 2-2. Third baseman Austin Riley then singled before a Matt Olson walk and Travis d’Arnaud RBI single gave the Braves a 3-2 lead. Left fielder Eddie Rosario later doubled to score Olson for a 4-2 Atlanta advantage.
Meanwhile, Guardians shortstop Amed Rosario continued his hot streak. Rosario delivered a two-out, two-run double to left center in the bottom of the third inning scoring Tyler Freeman and Steven Kwan, who both singled, for a 2-0 advantage. He ended the night for Braves starter Koby Allard with his second home run of the season, a solo shot to the bleachers to lead off the bottom of the sixth to cut Atlanta’s lead to 4-3. Then, in the bottom of the 7th inning, Rosario notched his 41st career three-hit game with the go-ahead scoring single to score Kwan, giving the Guardians a 5-4 advantage.
Kwan set up Rosario's go-ahead hit by tying the game in the 7th with an RBI single off Braves reliever Kirby Yates down the right field line, scoring Tyler Freeman to knot the score at 4-all.
However, Albies struck again in the bottom of the 9th with a leadoff solo homer off Emmanuel Clase to tie the game at 5-5. Clase suffered his 7th blown save of the season.
The game would go into the top of the 10th, where Myles Straw cut off the Braves' chances of scoring with a throw to home plate on a 1-out fly ball, allowing Fry to tag incoming runner Sam Hilliard for the third out.
In the bottom of the 10th, after Jose Ramírez was intentionally walked, Gabriel Arias bunted into a double play, allowing lead runner Rosario to move to third. Andres Gimenez would be intentionally walked before Fry roped the game-winning hit to the left field wall, just out of reach of left fielder Eddie Rosario.
Enyel De Los Santos (4-1) earned the win for his work in the 10th inning, while Braves reliever Raisel Iglesias took the loss, dropping to 3-3.
The Guardians (42-43) will play the rubber match tomorrow at 7:10 p.m. The Braves (57-28) will start Michael Sorka (1-1, 6.89 ERA), while Cleveland is expected to throw Cal Quantrill (2-5, 6.18 ERA).
Shane Bieber allows career-high in walks; Amed Rosario homers, drives in four runs
