The Giants avoid the sweep, taking the lead against an exhausted bullpen.
The Cleveland Guardians wrapped up their 3-game series against the San Francisco Giants with a afternoon (for the East Coast) match up between Logan Webb and Gavin Williams.
The Guards looked to strike first again with the top of the line up hitting early. Steven Kwan led the game off with a single to second. José Ramírez hit a one-out single to put Kwan in scoring position. With two outs and Lane Thomas up to bat, the Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos prevented a hit, potentially two runs, and retired the side.
In the top of the third, the Guardians pieced together some textbook GuardsBall hitting to get on the board. Angel Martínez led off the inning with a double to right and advanced to third on a Steven Kwan single. Kwan advanced to third on a challenged tag play. Kwan was originally called out, but the call was overturned after review. José Ramírez hit a groundball to first base prompting Angel to break for home. Angel was tagged out at home, allowing José to reach safely on a fielders choice and advancing Kwan to 3rd. The Guardians finally were successful in tacking on a run with a Carlos Santana RBI single, putting them up 1-0.
Gavin Williams pitched a gem going into the fifth inning. Williams kept it scoreless for the Guards, only allowing a hit and 2 walks on 69 pitches. In the bottom of the fourth both Daniel Schneemann and Carlos Santana made back-to-back gold glove caliber plays to keep Gavin out of trouble.
Gavin Williams came on in the sixth inning and completed his quality start. After hitting Heliot Ramos with a pitch to put him on, a perfectly executed strike-em-out throw-em-out retired the side. Gavin ended his day throwing 6.0 complete, scoreless innings. He allowed only five base runners on two hits and three walks. Gavin struck out six and threw 104 pitches.
In the bottom of the seventh Vogt turned to Matt Festa. Festa gave up a single and a walk. Carlos Santana made another great play on a sac bunt that advanced both runners. With a pinch hitter, Vogt quickly called for Nic Enright. Enright gave up a nasty double to left that scored two runners, giving up the lead to the Giants. Enright stayed in for the eighth, giving up a lead off single before Vogt pulled him for Jakob Junis. Junis got out of the inning unscathed, but the Guardians couldn’t pull through and lost to the Giants.
The 2-1 loss goes to Matt Festa and the Guards go to Oakland Sacramento to face the Oakland A’s. It’ll be another late night start with first pitch scheduled for 10:05PM EDT. Bibee will get the start for Cleveland.