CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – With temperatures around 90, the ball was flying Saturday.
Jose Ramirez slugged his 19th home run of the season, Steven Kwan and two other Guardians left the yard as well as Cleveland outslugged the Blue Jays 6-3 Saturday afternoon at Progressive Field.
Every run scored in the game came via a total of seven long balls.
Here’s the top news and notes from Game 2 with the Blue Jays
Dynamic duo – Kwan and Ramirez continue to pound baseballs and the Guardians continue to win games. “You're just looking at two very, very good baseball players that wow you on a nightly basis,” Vogt said. “It's fun to watch them. It's not by accident. They both work incredibly hard and they're incredibly talented and the best players in the league are that they're extremely hardworking and talented and so it's fun. You just start smiling when they do it and that ball Jose hit, man, it was crushed and Kwani gets himself into a good count and does what he does.” Ramirez now has the third-most home runs by a Cleveland ballplayer in the ballpark with 110, passing Carlos Santana. Kwan, who went 2-3 reached base three times, including leading off the game with a double.
Still Ben deadly – Ben Lively picked up his seventh win of the season after allowing a pair of solo home runs, three hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 5 2/3 innings. “Ben was outstanding today,” Vogt said. “Again, felt like he had the zip back on his ball compared to last long layoff in between the last two, I felt like he had the zip back on his fast ball and some sharp breaking balls too swing and miss weak contact, so gave us a great outing.” The Guardians taking the first two games against Toronto this weekend after losing two of three the previous weekend north of the border showed Lively something. “That we can bounce back,” Lively said. “It was like that long road trip kind of towards the end. We got maybe a little tired or whatever, but we get back on it. We know what we need to do and put up the numbers like we did today.”
Birthday boy – Josh Naylor turned 27 Saturday and the team celebrated by handing out a Josh Naylor bobblehead to the first 15,000 fans through the gates. Unfortunately, Josh went 0-4 at the plate with a pair of strikeouts while his younger brother Bo clubbed a two-run shot in the bottom of the second inning that gave the Guardians a 2-1 lead.
Solo shots – Toronto’s three runs came all from solo home runs. Shortstop and leadoff hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa went deep in the third and eighth innings and Davis Schneider hit his 10th of the season in the second. “We always say solo shots don't beat you and all three of those were on mistake pitches and there's some good hitters over there,” Vogt said. “When we made our pitches, we got it done and when we made mistakes they banged them.”
Catch of the day – Schneeman, who played center field, ended the top of the fifth with a leaping catch at the wall in left center off the bat of his Blue Jays counterpart, Kevin Kiermaier. “I was just trying to track it,” Schneeman said. “I was trying to feel the track on my feet, kind of just try to time the jump and I'm glad I was able to time it the right way.” While Schneeman tried to downplay the effort, Kwan wasn’t having it. “I'll speak for him,” Kwan interjected. “That's a really hard one, especially you have a lefty and the ball is going away. I don't even think he understands how difficult a play that is. That was insane.”
DJ Diesel – Basketball Hall of Famer and TNT personality Shaquille O’Neal was the ballpark’s postgame DJ Saturday. Before the game, Vogt tried to contain his excitement. “Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you,” Vogt said. “It's awesome. It should be a fun night.” Vogt hasn’t forgotten the time he met Shaq, but acknowledged he didn’t leave an impression. “He won't remember,” Vogt said. “It was at an NBA finals game in Oakland and I just shook his hand and saw him in the hallway…. I didn't have an opportunity to watch the Bill Russells and Kareem Abdul-Jabbars, but it's hard for me to think of a more dominant basketball player that's ever walked on the face of the earth.” Most of the Guardians players joined Shaq on stage. He told the crowd “if the Guardians win the World Series I’ll come back… free of charge.”
Pack ‘em in – Saturday’s game saw the largest crowd of the season – 37,133 – take in Saturday’s game. It marked the sixth of the season and the second time in 2024 the club sold out back-to-back games. Through the first five games of the homestand the Guardians have drawn over 149,000 fans and the team is hoping to eclipse 100,000 for the weekend alone.
Up next – Series and homestand finale Sunday afternoon at 1:40. RHP Triston McKenzie (3-4, 4.48) vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi (4-6, 3.65).