The Cleveland Guardians entered this weekend series against the Boston Red Sox winners of seven of their last nine games, all on the road. They exit this weekend swept to begin an 11-game homestand after losing to the Red Sox, 8-3, this afternoon.
Rich Hill earned the win, allowing one run on five hits in six innings. He walked five batters and struck out four. Aaron Civale took the loss, giving up three runs on eight hits in four innings. He struck out three batters and walked two.
The Red Sox scored the first five runs of the game, starting in the third inning when Jarren Duran scored after a Guardians' throwing error during an attempted double play. Boston scored twice in the fourth inning, following doubles between Franchy Cordero, Christian Vazquez, and Jarren Duran. Finally, Trevor Story hit a two-out two-run single in the sixth inning to extend Boston's lead to 5-0.
The Guardians responded with one run each in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Oscar Gonzalez delivered Cleveland's first RBI in the sixth on a groundout, Owen Miller singled in Ernie Clement in the seventh, and Andres Giminez singled in Jose Ramirez to cap off the Guardians' offense for the afternoon.
Boston added two insurance runs in the ninth when JD Martinez hit an RBI double, and Rafael Devers scored on a wild pitch. Devers also had an RBI single in the seventh inning. Six Red Sox had multiple hits, including Devers and Martinez with three each. Despite outhitting the Guardians, 15-8, the Red Sox left 16 runners on base to the Guardians' seven. For the Guardians, Jose Ramirez went three-for-four with a double, and Andres Giminez went two-for-three with a double and a walk.
The Red Sox have won seven straight games, and improve to 42-31. The Guardians have lost four consecutive games ahead of a five-game series against the Central Division-leading Minnesota Twins (41-33), starting tomorrow at 7:10 PM. The Twins visit Cleveland for the first time this season after winning two of three games against the Colorado Rockies this weekend. This upcoming series includes a doubleheader on Tuesday with the first game rescheduled from the first week of the season due to the lockout.