Photo: Getty Images/Ron Schwane
CLEVELAND, OH--- It was a big night in downtown Cleveland Wednesday night, we would see the debut of #1 Guardians prospect Gavin Williams. Williams would go a little over 5 innings, he gave up 4 hits, 4 runs, and struck out 4 Oakland batters with 84 pitches. Williams is the #16 overall prospect in the MLB top 100 list, he was the 23rd overall pick in the 2021 draft. He almost struck out the first batter he faced, but after umpire review, it was ruled a foul tip, but he did get the batter (Esteury Ruiz) to force into a groundout. Williams would eventually get his first MLB strikeout later on in the first, waving Ramon Laureano.
Williams would help keep the game scoreless until the 3rd inning, where he would give up an RBI single to Esteury Ruiz and a 3 run home run to Ryan Noda which were part of 4 consecutive Oakland hits in that inning. Williams would recover though, after walking JJ Bleday, he would pick him off of first to end the inning. In the bottom half of that 3rd the Guardians would get 2 runs back with an Amed Rosario RBI single, and the first of 2 fielding errors from Ramon Laureano allowed Steve Kwan to score the additional run. Including that RBI single, the Guardians would rally for a 4 hit streak in the 3rd as well, with Andres Gimenez hitting a SAC fly with the bases loaded, allowing Rosario to score. In the 5th, the Guardians would score another run with Josh Naylor driving in Jose Ramirez after he tripled. The A's would once again attack back with Esteury Ruiz's second RBI single of the game in the 7th. Seth Brown would later on hit the A's 4th single of the inning extending their lead to 6-4 at that point. Again it was Josh Naylor, who has the most RBI of first baseman in the entire MLB hitting a solo home run to cut the lead down to one in the bottom half of that 7th, it was his 4th hit of the night.
In the 8th we would see another notable feat, Bo Naylor's first MLB hit, where he worked a full count and shot a ground ball up the middle. Naylor would then be brought in by a Steven Kwan RBI double along with Myles Straw, Kwan would advance to 3rd on Ramon Laureano's 2nd error of the night.
A development to pay attention to is a possible injury to Will Brennan. Early on in the game he made an excellent diving play in right field but would exit the game, no information is available at this time about the shoulder but you can follow along with all updates on WTAM 1100 AM, 106.9 FM and HERE