Angel Martinez hit a solo homer and Patrick Bailey drove in his first run since being acquired in a trade, giving the Cleveland Guardians a 3-2 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night.
Vaughn Grissom homered in the eighth for the Angels, who are 4-29 in Cleveland since 2015 — the most lopsided series in the majors at one team’s ballpark during the period — and have not won consecutive games in the city in 13 years.
Hunter Gaddis (1-1) allowed one hit over 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Cade Smith picked up his 12th save in 14 opportunities by retiring all four batters he faced.
Martinez went deep in the third inning against Angels rookie Walbert Urena (1-4) to break the ice, while Bailey’s groundout in the fifth brought home Daniel Schneemann and extended Cleveland’s lead to 2-0.
Los Angeles pulled within 2-1 in the sixth when pinch-hitter Oswald Peraza tripled off Tim Herrin and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jo Adell, but the Guardians answered in the seventh with a Brayan Rocchio sacrifice fly that plated Petey Halpin.
Grissom greeted rookie Franco Aleman with a 406-foot blast to center to cut Cleveland’s advantage to 3-2. When Aleman walked Josh Lowe, Smith was summoned from the bullpen for his second four-out appearance of the year.
The Angels had a solid shot at pulling even in the seventh, putting two on with one out against Erik Sabrowski, but the Canadian left-hander struck out Nolan Schanuel and Jorge Soler to end the threat.
Adell robbed Martinez of another extra-base hit in the fifth, grabbing his drive just before it struck the top of the wall in right field.
Urena, a right-hander, gave up two runs on three hits over five innings. He struck out four and walked one in his seventh appearance in the majors.
Guardians starter Slade Cecconi tossed four scoreless innings, striking out seven with an inflated pitch count of 89. The right-hander allowed five hits and one walk.
Two-time Gold Glove winning catcher Bailey came to Cleveland via a trade with the San Francisco Giants on May 9. He is 0-of-5 and has not reached base with the Guardians.
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt returned to the dugout after missing two games with a viral infection. Bench coach Tony Arnerich went 1-1 filling in.
–Field Level Media
