Jose Ramirez smacked a three-run home run to fuel an early offensive outburst and the Cleveland Guardians held on to win their seventh game in a row, edging the host Baltimore Orioles 10-8 on Tuesday night.
Gunnar Henderson blasted his 25th homer of the season for the first of the Orioles’ four long balls, but Baltimore’s losing streak reached five games.
Ramirez has 21 home runs this year and has gone deep in back-to-back games.
With their team trailing 8-4, Baltimore’s James McCann and Colton Cowser smashed back-to-back home runs to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Jordan Westburg had four hits and Ryan Mountcastle had three for the Orioles, who also got a homer from Anthony Santander in the eighth.
It wasn’t until the fifth inning that neither team scored. Pedro Avila (2-1) was the winning pitcher with 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief.
Both starting pitchers were roughed up. Baltimore’s Cole Irvin (6-4) gave up eight runs (four earned) and 10 hits in four innings, while Cleveland’s Logan Allen surrendered six runs on nine hits in three-plus innings.
Henderson, who ranks second in the majors in home runs, moved from the leadoff spot to the clean-up position. He drilled a two-out, two-run homer in the first inning to give Baltimore a 2-1 lead.
Both teams scored in the first inning for the second night in a row. David Fry’s two-out double drove in Ramirez in the first for the Guardians.
Following Henderson’s blast, Cleveland retook the lead on Gabriel Arias’ two-run double in the second.
McCann tied the game in the bottom of the second with an RBI single. The Orioles nearly took the lead in the inning, but McCann was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first on Mountcastle’s two-out double.
Westburg’s RBI double in the third gave Baltimore a 4-3 edge. Cleveland’s Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan countered with RBI singles in the fourth before Ramirez’s three-run shot. McCann’s groundout in the seventh plated a run to pull the Orioles within 8-7.
Bo Naylor’s run-scoring triple and Arias’ RBI single gave the Guardians a 10-7 cushion in the top of the eighth.
–Field Level Media
