Angel Martínez <3
Coming off of the breath of fresh air victory in Game 1 against the Houston Astros, the Cleveland Guardians sent out Joey Cantillo against the young Astros line up in pursuit of win two.
The top of the line up struck early. Nolan Jones got on base with a one-out single. José Ramírez hit his second home run of the series to right to put the Guards up by two.
The Astros answered back, adding a run of their own in the bottom of the first. The infield had themselves a challenge with a couple of balls hitting the rafters and being called dead balls.
In the top of the third, Brayan Rocchio hit a lead off double to right. With one out, Nolan Jones hit a beautiful double of his own, scoring Rocchio.
José was intentionally walked to face Carlos Santana. Santana flied out for the second out, allowing NoJo to advance to third base. Daniel Schneemann took the first pitch of his at bat to aid in José stealing second base. Then Schneemann knocked in a 2-RBI single of his own to put the Guardians up 5-1.
Brayan Rocchio wasn’t done contributing to the offense. During his next at bat in the top of the fourth, Rocchio demolished the ball all the way to right field for his first home run of the season.
Joey Cantillo went his usual four innings, seeing two batters in the fifth before Stephen Vogt called for Matt Festa. Cantillo ended his night with 5H, 3R/ER, 3BB, and 7K. Festa inherited two runners when he came on in the bottom of the fifth. After the pitching change, Festa gave up a 2-RBI double then gave up a sac fly to cut the lead in half. Erik Sabrowski came on to pitch the bottom of the sixth. Sabrowski gave up a lead off double to left but struckout the next two. Vogt went to Cade Smith for the match up and final out. Cade intentionally balked the runner on second, advancing them to third. It was heavily implied by both the TV and Radio broadcast that there were concerns about runners on second being able to pick up his pitches. With the runner on third, Cade had no problem getting the final out of the inning.
After a quiet seventh for the offense, Cade returned to pitch the bottom of the inning. Cade struggled a bit after getting his first out. Back-to-back batters walked and a wild pitch allowed both to advance. Cade worked out of the inning with a pop out and a strikeout to retire the side. Hunter Gaddis came on in the eighth to give off a lead off single. A one-out double put the Astros within one. Houston finally closed that gap with a RBI single to tie it. It was Hunter’s third straight day of work. Jakob Junis replaced Hunter Gaddis in the ninth. He allowed one hit but froze the batter for the third out giving the Guardians offense a chance to get back on top.
Steven Kwan was the ghost runner in the top of the tenth. Will Wilson laid down a sac bunt to advance the runner and the Astros intentionally walked José again to put runners on the corners. José stole his 24th base of the season as Carlos Santana drew a walk to load the bases. Johnathan Rodríguez pinch hit for Daniel Schneemann and struck out swinging. With bases loaded and two outs, Angel Martínez fouled off pitch one, took a ball for pitch two, then hit pitch three to left field for a grand slam.
The Guards turned to Emmanuel Clase to finish out the game. With a ghost runner on, Clase was completely unphased and back to the version of Clase we all know and love. A flyout, groundout, and a strikeout sent the Astros’ last chance at a walk-off down 1-2-3.
The Guards have now won two in a row. If they win tomorrow, that’s called a winning streak. It’s happened before.