Jose Ramirez hit his third home run in two games and the Cleveland Guardians blanked the host Detroit Tigers 5-0 on Tuesday afternoon.
Ramirez’s homer, a two-run shot in the eighth inning, was his 243rd of his career and moved him into second on Cleveland’s all-time home run list, passing Albert Belle.
Hall of Famer Jim Thome has the most homers in franchise history (337).
Josh Naylor and Brayan Rocchio also homered for the Guardians, who won the two-game series as well as the season series over Detroit, 7-6.
Lane Thomas went 1-for-4 and scored a run in his Cleveland debut. The speedy outfielder was acquired from Washington on Monday.
Gavin Williams (1-3) pitched the minimum five innings to collect the win. He gave up two hits and walked one while striking out eight.
A quartet of relievers tossed one inning apiece to complete the shutout.
Bligh Madris had two hits for the Tigers. Detroit starter Tyler Holton, used as an opener, pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings.
The Guardians had runners in scoring position in the second. Andres Gimenez and Tyler Freeman had two-out singles and Freeman stole second. Holton then retired Daniel Schneemann on a fly ball.
It was a similar scenario for the Tigers in the bottom of the inning. Madris singled and Gio Urshela reached on first baseman Naylor’s fielding error to put runners on the corners. Williams escaped that jam by retiring Zach McKinstry on a flyout.
Cleveland broke through in the fourth on Naylor’s 23th homer, a blast to right field off Alex Faedo (5-3).
The Guardians extended their lead to 2-0 in the next inning. Freeman was hit by a pitch before Schneemann lined a double to right to score him. Schneemann moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt but was doubled off the bag on Steven Kwan’s line-drive out.
McKinstry walked in the bottom of the fifth inning and reached second on a throwing error by Williams. Matt Vierling then struck out to end the inning.
Cleveland scored with two outs in the eighth. Thomas ripped a two-out single before Ramirez clubbed his 27th homer of the season over the right-field wall off Jason Foley.
Rocchio completed the scoring with his solo shot off Joey Wentz in the ninth.
–Field Level Media
