CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Don’t look now but the Cleveland Guardians have won four straight.
Thanks to a prodigious blast off the bat of Josh Bell, a Myles Straw RBI triple and an eighth inning implosion by A’s reliever Yacksel Rios, who walked in two runs and allowed two more to score off wild pitches, the Guardians completed a sweep of the A’s with a 6-1 win Thursday afternoon.
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Here’s our Final 9 from the series finale.
1. Bell’s seventh home run of the season, which came in the bottom of the fifth, was a rocket off the “H” in the “Brewed in Ohio” sign that adorns the walkway over the left field home run porch between the ballpark and parking garage. “I was praying that it stayed fair with the wind blowing side to side,” Bell said. “It was kind of side spun, so happy that it wrapped around the pole and it got us on the board.” The ball traveled an estimated 430 feet and tied that game at 1. It was Bell’s 500th career RBI. “I think with that kind of ball flight, I’ve hit balls hard, but not in the air,” Bell said. “So yeah, it definitely felt good.”
2. Myles Straw delivered a two-out triple off the wall in left to score Andres Gimenez, who singled, to give Cleveland a 2-1 advantage following Bell’s bomb. “I thought it was getting caught, to be honest with you,” Straw said. “The way Tony Kemp kind of went back on it, I feel like he was facing me looking up. It was kind of like a routine fly ball and I was hoping it at least got to the wall for that RBI and that go ahead run. So fortunately enough it did. And you didn't know, I mean we were kind of grinding against those guys all day today and they fought a good little series. They had the lead every single game this series and I think we did a pretty good job of chasing those guys back and coming back and fighting back.” Straw went 2-for-3 Thursday afternoon. “When he hits, we're different and it shows,” Francona said.
3. Jose Ramirez collected the Guardians first hit of the afternoon off A’s starter JP Sears with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning but was caught trying to steal second to end the inning. Ramirez walked with the bases loaded in the eighth to push across the fifth run with no outs. Ramirez passed Carlos Santana for 14th place in team history with his 711th RBI.
4. Sears worked seven innings for Oakland and allowed two earned runs on four hits. He struck out eight and walked one while throwing 106 pitches, 79 for strikes.
5. Guardians starter Logan Allen was lifted after four innings that saw him allow just two hits, strike out five with three walks but he threw a lot of pitches – 89 of them. “That’s a lot,” Francona said. “That’s a lot more intensity on your arm and fatiguing as opposed to maybe going seven [innings] at when you’re kind of in a rhythm. He had to fight for everything he could get. Now the good part of it was he did and he didn’t give you any up any runs, but it’s just a lot of deep counts.” The three walks all came in the top of the fourth, but Allen was able to escape without allowing a run to cross. “I think did a much better job. Having a clean first inning definitely helped,” Allen said. “They definitely had some good at-bats here in the fourth inning. Kind of drove the pitch count up a little bit. But yeah, definitely I'd say they did a better job compared to last week and the week prior, but still got a little bit of work going [forward].”
6. The A’s took a 1-0 lead on the Guardians in the top of the fifth thanks to a sacrifice fly to center from shortstop Aledmys Diaz, which allowed left fielder Tony Kemp, who led the inning off with a walk, to score.
7. Cleveland got some insurance with four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning when Gabriel Arias scored on a wild pitch from A’s reliever Yacksel Rios. Rios then proceeded to walk in the fourth and fifth runs with the bases loaded. A wild pitch allowed Steven Kwan, who singled, to score and make it 6-1.
8. The Guardians bullpen was solid once again – Nick Sandlin, Enyel De Los Santos and Eli Morgan combined to handle the final five innings. Sandlin, who allowed one run over two innings, won his third of the season to improve to 3-3.
9. The win was the Guardians fourth straight, matching the team’s longest win streak of the season, the first coming from March 30-April 3. It was also Cleveland's first sweep of the 2023 season. “Based off how we started, I think we’ve definitely taken a turn for the better,” Bell said. “Last month and a half our bats have come alive. Ramirez and [Josh] Naylor have really taken over and supplied that fire that we needed early on. And our starters, man, they're keeping us in games. So the last few weeks has been fun.”