David Fry’s three-run homer broke open a tight game after Tanner Bibee allowed one run over 6 1/3 innings as the Cleveland Guardians won their eighth straight at home, 7-1, over the Washington Nationals on Friday night.
Cleveland led 2-1 entering its half of the seventh, and added a run when Josh Naylor beat out a potential inning-ending double-play ball with the bases loaded. Fry, one of the majors’ feel-good stories in his second season, then clubbed a Robert Garcia pitch over the 19-foot left-field wall with two on for his eighth homer and a 6-1 lead for the American League Central-leading Guardians.
Fry, who began this season as the backup catcher but found a spot in the lineup, is batting .352 with 27 RBIs for Cleveland, which has won 17 of its last 20 games at home.
Bibee (4-1) allowed one hit and struck out seven entering the seventh. That’s when Luis Garcia knocked his second of three singles and eventually scored on former Guardian Eddie Rosario’s one-out double into the right field corner. Rosario’s hit chased Bibee, but reliever Cade Smith limited the damage by getting the next two Washington hitters.
Nationals starter Patrick Corbin (1-6) allowed six hits and three walks, but just two third-inning runs over six innings. Washington had won five of its previous seven, including three of four at Atlanta this week.
In the third, Corbin walked Brayan Rocchio, then allowed a single to Steven Kwan, who went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs in his return from missing nearly four weeks with a strained hamstring.
Tyler Freeman followed with a smash that glanced off Washington third baseman Nick Senzel and near shortstop C.J. Abrams, whose throw home couldn’t keep Rocchio from scoring from second. Jose Ramirez followed with an RBI groundout that made it 2-0.
Rocchio scored from first on Kwan’s two-out, broken-bat bloop single in the eighth.
–Field Level Media
