CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader with the Texas Rangers was worth the wait.
After being rained out Monday night and then sitting through an hour and 19-minute rain delay, the Guardians and Rangers finally took the field.
Cal Quantrill allowed three runs in seven innings, Amed Rosario collected three hits and four Guardians drove in runs in Cleveland’s 6-3 victory at Progressive Field to get the team back to .500 at 25-25.
“.500 isn’t our goal,” manager Terry Francona said. “It needs to be a jumping off point, if anything. We’ve got a lot of baseball to play but it shows that when we play good baseball we can win. I think our guys know that.”
Quantrill allowed eight hits, struck out three and walked one to pick up his third victory of the season and improve to 3-3.
“We will not use youth as an excuse. We will not use the rain as an excuse. We won’t use the lack of home games or a weird schedule as an excuse,” Quantrill said. “None of that matters to us. We think we can be a playoff team this year and [getting back to .500] was the first step towards that.”
Texas took a 1-0 lead in the first inning thanks to a pair of singles to lead off the game and a fielder’s choice off the bat of Kole Calhoun to score leadoff hitter Marcus Semien from third.
Oscar Gonzalez has hit in nine of his first 10 games with the Guardians after roping a double to left in the bottom of the second. The double moved Josh Naylor, who walked, to third and he scored to tie the game at 1 on Steven Kwan’s sacrifice fly to center.
Owen Miller ignited a four-run third inning with a two-run single followed by a Naylor RBI double to left and Gonzalez’ second double in as many plate appearances to drive in another run giving the Guardians a 5-1 lead.
The Rangers used a pair of solo home runs in the seventh from rookie Steele Walker and Semien to pull within 5-3. Walker’s homer down the line to right was also his first major league hit for Texas.
“I don’t regret either of those pitches,” Quantrill said. “Pretty good swings by both of those guys. Given the type of game it was, I need to go and attack hitters and go as deep as I can and if a little bit of damage gets done [then] a little bit of damage gets done.”
Andres Gimenez drove in Cleveland’s sixth run on an infield single after pinch runner Oscar Mercado, on for Gonzalez, rounded third and kept going because Semien gave up on the ball and the throw home was too late.
The Guardians stole a season-high six bases in the victory.
Emmanuel Clase extended his scoreless innings streak to 8.0 by picking up his 10th save of the season.