CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The first place Cleveland Guardians continue to roll along.
Jose Ramirez and David Fry homered while Emmanuel Clase picked up his Major League leading 15th save as the Guardians held off the Mets 7-6 Tuesday evening at Progressive Field.
Here’s the top news and notes from Game 2 with the Mets.
Home cookin’ – The Guardians are getting used to cranking the partybox after games in the clubhouse because they just keep winning. “So much fun,” Fry said. “Locker room's awesome, [the] dugout. I mean, everybody's just having a blast right now.” Cleveland is a Major League best 17-6 at home this season and Tuesday night’s victory pushed them to a season-high 15 games above .500 at 32-17. “This is a special group in that room,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “I mean, they care about each other. They love each other, and the rhetoric when we give up runs is not quiet. It's come right back in. It's punch 'em back, get 'em back, let's answer. You can say it, and then when you go out and do it, you start to believe it. That starts to snowball. And this group, I feel like we're saying it every night right now, but they believe they're going to win. That's a very powerful thing for a team to feel for a team that we really don't have huge standout offensive numbers outside of Josey and Nayls, but this team just rallies around each other and somebody different comes up every night.”
Jose Jose Jose – Ramirez slugged his 12th home run in the bottom of the fifth as he went 2-4 with three RBI on the night. Ramirez also doubled giving him 600 extra base hits in his career and it marked his 101st game with multiple extra base hits, passing Hal Trosky for third most in team history. “It's so hard to stay consistent to the amount of work that he puts in off the field,” Vogt said. “Just the dedication that Josey has to playing this game at an elite level is something to look up to for our young guys.” Ramirez leads the American League with 44 RBI this season.
In a pinch – Fry pinch hit for Kyle Manzardo in the bottom of the sixth following a pitching change and delivered an opposite field two-run home run off Mets reliever Jake Diekman to right to push the Guardians lead back to three for the third time, 7-4. “Some guys I'm looking to get out in front, it was somewhat of the plan against Diekman and then he threw me a changeup and I was like, wow, I looked really terrible on that,” Fry said. “So let's maybe look to go the other way and was able to get a pitch out over and a little cross wind to right. Didn't hurt.” It was the first career pinch hit homer for Fry and third pinch hit blast for the Guardians this season joining Will Brennan April 15 at Boston and Estevan Florial April 14 at Yankee Stadium.
Triple double(s) – The Guardians broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning thanks to a trio of RBI doubles. Bo Naylor was hit by a pitch with one out before Brayon Rocchio lined a double down the right field line scoring Naylor. Tyler Freeman followed by ripping a ball down the left field line for a double to score Rocchio, who scored an out later on a double to right center by Jose Ramirez over Mets right fielder Starling Marte’s head for a 3-0 lead.
Curry favor – Xzavion Curry flew in from Omaha Monday night after getting called up for Columbus to start Tuesday evening. “That's always exciting to get the call that I'm coming to play in the big leagues,” Curry said. “But yesterday I guess sometimes it does get a little crazy, but I'm always grateful for the opportunities that are presented.” Curry, who had been struggling a bit at AAA, pitched 4 1/3 innings where he allowed two runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts. “It is a confidence picker up just to be able to have that bad period of time down there in AAA and then be able to come up in the bigs and be able to perform how I would like to perform,” Curry said. “So that just kind of reiterates to me just stay in my process, stay in my plan and just trust God and keep faith and just keep moving forward. Sometimes you do want to wallow in self-pity, but just being able to just keep moving forward.” It was the second start of the season for Curry, who threw five scoreless innings April 15 at Boston. “We couldn't have asked much more out of Zay, kind of getting ambushed with a start,” Vogt said. “And the way he came out the first four innings and threw the ball was the Zay we remembered from Fenway. And I think he looked like he got a little tired in the fifth, started to lose his command a little bit, but outstanding job getting us that deep into the game.”
Take the 5th – The Mets chased Curry in the fifth inning with four consecutive hits and two runs scored. Third baseman Mark Vientos clubbed his second home run of the season – a 430-foot shot to center – to get New York on the board with one out in the inning. Second baseman Jeff McNeil doubled and Tomas Nido singled before Francisco Lindor delivered an RBI single to cut the Guardians lead to 3-2. Nick Sandlin relieved Curry and after walking Pete Alonso to load the bases, Sandlin struck out Brandon Nimmo and J.D. Martinez to end the inning.
Counter punch – The Mets didn’t go quietly. Jeff McNeil countered in the top of the sixth with a two-out, two-run home run to right center, his second of the season, off Guardians reliever Sam Hentges to pull the Mets back within one, 5-4. In the top of the eighth Sterling Marte pulled New York within one again with another two-run homer but 7-6 was as close as the visitors could get.
Carrasco scratched – Carlos Carrasco was scratched hours before Tuesday night’s start due to neck spasms. “Over the past few days, Cookie's been experiencing some neck tightness and just kind of spasms,” Vogt said. “And so he's been working with the medical staff over the last few days, did everything they could yesterday, today, and just had to make the tough decision that it wouldn't be in best interest for him to go out there tonight. So we had to make the move and got Zay here to start.”
Stacking series – Tuesday night’s win gave the Guardians their 12 series win in 16 to date this season. Cleveland has also won seven of eight played at home.
Up next – Series finale against the New York Mets Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. RHP Triston McKenzie (2-3, 3.23) vs. LHP Jose Quintana (1-4, 5.21)
