Guardians 3 – Giants 2: Steven Kwan is Very Good at Defense

Steven Kwan flashes his triple gold glove in Guardians victory.

The Cleveland Guardians and San Francisco Giants kicked off a three game series as the team continues their West Coast campaign.

Slade Cecconi took the mound for the Guardians and had a difficult first inning. Cecconi gave up a lead off walk and then hit Heliot Ramos on the elbow to put two on with two out. An RBI single put the Giants up 1-0 before the side was retired, but the Guardians didn’t take long to respond. In the top of the third Johnathan Rodríguez hit into triple alley perfectly for his first MLB triple.

A sac fly, that was halfway onto the warning track, from Austin Hedges tied the game at 1-1.

The Giants immediately bit back with another walk-turned-run to regain the lead. Cecconi gave up a one-out walk to Willy Adames who scored in the next at bat on a Devers double to put the Giants up 2-1. But the lead wouldn’t hold for long. David Fry hit a lead off double to left and scored on a Carlos Santana RBI single up the center.

Slade Cecconi came back to lock in for the fourth and fifth innings, just long enough for the Guardians to take the lead on a Gabriel Arias home run.

Cecconi ended the night having pitched 5.0 innings. He allowed two runs on four hits and three walks, striking out six. Matt Festa came on in relief for the bottom of the sixth, giving up a double between outs. The Giants lifted their catcher for former Cleveland player Daniel Johnson and Vogt answered in turn by going to RHP Cade Smith for the final out of the inning. Cade struck out Johnson, maintaining the one run lead for Cleveland going into the seventh.

Vogt was very aggressive with the pitching matchup, reverting back to a tactic we saw a lot last year. Smith gave up a one-out single, but challenged Rafeal Devers. Devers hit into a groundout for the second out and Vogt immediately went to Hunter Gaddis to finish the seventh inning. Gaddis gave up a walk to Ramos, but Ramos took too long to get to first base, giving the next batter a unearned strike. Gaddis took advantage and struck out Dom Smith to retire the side.

Gaddis stayed in for the bottom of the eighth and gave up two singles before recording an out. With runners on first and second, Wilmer Flores hit a fly ball to Steven Kwan. Kwan made a great catch, throwing in to the new second baseman, Daniel Schneemann. Schneemann tagged the bag with the runner well off base for a cheeky double play. With the next batter grounding out to José Ramírez, Gaddis ended his night without allowing a run, inherited or otherwise, to score.

Gabriel Arias continued his long ball night with a ground rule double to center that was just shy of a second homer. Schneemann advanced Arias to third with a ground out to second, but the Guardians couldn’t tack on the insurance run. Angel Martínez hit a flyout to left field that was too shallow for Arias to score. Arias was tagged out at home for the inning ending double play.

Vogt turned to Emmanuel Clase to bring the game home. Clase decided to give the fans still awake and watching a jolt of adrenaline. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with only one out for the fire thrower. A flyout to Kwan and a great throw into the infield froze the runner at third, preventing a chance at tying the game. Clase came back to strike out Casey Schmidt to officially book it.

Steven Kwan had a defense masterclass (and walked twice), the offense jumped on the starter before facing the best bullpen in the league, and Vogt was aggressive with his bullpen matchups. This felt like a last year win, something this team has needed for a while.

It will be another late night game tomorrow today with a 9:45 PM EDT start time. Logan T. Allen will face off against Justin Verlander.