CLEVELAND, OH--- Legendary Cleveland manager Tito Francona would end his era at Progressive Field on a positive note, thanks to the Guardians getting a 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night. Francona coming in sported a 3,618-1,948 all-time record as an MLB manager, giving countless memories to Cleveland fans, taking us to the 2016 World Series, the many division titles, the miracle 2022 season, and of course, gathering the most wins by a single manager in Cleveland franchise history. Shane Bieber would give a big contribution to making sure Tito went out with a win, with a stellar 6 inning outing, giving up 5 hits while striking out 7 on 82 pitches.
The Guardians offense held the advantage for a majority of the game up until the 8th inning. Tyler Freeman and Brayan Rocchio would get things started in the 2nd inning with a pair of RBI singles to get the Guardians out to an early 2-0 lead, Rocchio unfortunately was thrown out at 2nd trying to stretch his single into a double. Josh Naylor would add on to the lead in the 3rd with an RBI single, and Jose Tena would hit ANOTHER RBI single in the 4th to give Cleveland a 4-0 lead. The Reds would start to chip into the lead with a Johnathan India RBI double in the 6th, the bullpen kept things quiet until the 8th inning. Trevor Stephan was the pitcher who would come in to relive Reynaldo Lopez. Stephan would give up 2 runs that would cut the Guardians lead down to 1 at 4-3, those runs came via a Johnathan India RBI double and a Spencer Steer groundout that would allow India to score. Luckily Emmanuel Clase wears a Guardians uniform, he would come in and save the day and get his career high 43rd save.
The Guardians are off Thursday and will head to Detroit Friday evening to wrap up the 2023 season, listen to all the games on WTAM 1100 AM, 106.9 FM, the free iHeartRadio app, and HERE
Thank You Tito