CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) - One night after the Detroit Tigers capitalized on one play to add to their Tuesday victory, the Cleveland Guardians took advantage of a late miscue.
What looked to be a 1-2-3 bottom of the 8th inning for the Tigers swiftly turned into a 6-run Cleveland rally that boosted the home team to victory, 8-4, on Wednesday night at Progressive Field.
A wild pitch swung at and missed by Luke Maile with two outs was followed by six consecutive Guardians hits, including an RBI ground-rule double by Steven Kwan, a game-tying infield single by Amed Rosario, and a go-ahead double by José Ramírez.
Oscar Gonzalez and Owen Miller would follow with back-to-back RBI hits to complete the Cleveland scoring, which saved the Guardians (63-55) from dropping three of four home contests to Detroit (45-75).
The Guardians took an early lead on a Gonzalez RBI double in the bottom of the 3rd inning that scored Ramírez. However, the Tigers promptly took the lead in the 4th on a Kerry Carpenter sacrifice fly and an Eric Hasse run-scoring infield single.
Detroit added to the lead with a Willi Castro solo home run in the 6th inning to make it 4-1 Tigers, which ended the night of Guardians starter Cal Quantrill (6.0 IP, five hits, four earned runs, two walks, two strikeouts). Quantrill, who had pitched two consecutive scoreless starts prior to Wednesday, was happy to win - but not happy with his performance.
"I really didn't pitch very well today," said Quantrill after the game. "I didn't do the things that got me those two scoreless games before...but the boys hooked me up, and that's a pretty special effort by them."
The Guardians scratched a run in the bottom of the 6th on a passed ball that scored Andres Gimenez, but the score would remain 4-2 until the fateful eighth frame.
Tigers reliever Andrew Chafin - who surrendered a late go-ahead home run to Gimenez in the Guardians' Monday doubleheader win over Detroit - struck out the first two Cleveland batters, but a wild pitch on a strike three swing by Maile allowed the Guardians catcher to reach first base. After an ensuing Myles Straw single, Kwan stepped up and lofted a pitch from Alex Lange down the right-field line, where it bounced in fair territory and into the Progressive Field bleachers.
"Half those kind of jam shots and lucky ones fall in," said Kwan. "It's good to see them kind of fall for everybody."
The next Guardians batter, Rosario, hustled out a grounder to tie the game at 4-all, and then Ramírez (1-4, 2 RBIs, 2 runs) slapped a 2-0 curve just in front of Tigers left fielder Akil Baddoo to take the lead. The floodgates would open as Gonzalez followed with an RBI double off the left-field wall, and after Josh Naylor intentionally walked, Miller roped a run-scoring single to finish the Cleveland scoring.
Emmanuel Clase closed out the Tigers in a non-save effort in the top of the 9th.
Cleveland will have Thursday off before returning Friday for the first of a three-game homestand with the Chicago White Sox, who sit three games back on the first-place Guardians in the AL Central standings.
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