Fry draws a 4-pitch walk to get thing started in the fifth. Freeman lines out to center. Diving catch robs Freeman of a base hit. Gimenez grounds out, Fry to second. Arias grounds one to short. Error on the throw to first. Fry scores all the way from second. 6-3. Hedges with an rbi double. Arias scores all the way from first. Guardians add to the lead 7-3. Rocchio grounds out to second to end the inning. Middle of 5, Guards up 7-3

Sandlin on in relief. It's a game of relief pitchers now. Pop out and a hit by pitch puts a runner on first with one out. Strike out swinging, Two out. Butler goes down swinging. End of 5, 7-3

Kwan leads off the sixth with a base hit the other way. Ramirez with a bloop single down the right field line. Two on. No outs. Brennan with a bunt single. Bags packed. No outs. Fry with a sac fly deep to left center. 8-3. Runners on first and second with one out. Situational hitting has been spot on today. Freeman singles on a double steel attempt adds another run to the total. Guards up 9-3. Brennan steals second. Runners on second and third. Guards pull off the double steel. Guards with 6 stolen bases. Gimenez flies out. Runners on second and third and two outs. Arias strikes out swinging. Middle of 6, Guards lead 9-3.

Cade Smith on in relief Cade making his major league debut. Cade gets his first major league strike out. Cade bringing it at 96 mph. Cade gets his man on strikes. Cade topping out at 98 mph on that at bat. Cade strikes out the side. WOW! Smith just attacking the strike zone. Looks like Smith plans on staying up here. That last strike out was on a 92 mph slider. End of 6, 9-3.

Hedges fans leading off the7th. Rocchio oiut short to first. Two down. Kwan blasts a homer to the bleachers in left. 10-3. Kwan with 3 straight hits. He's 3-5, 2 singles, 2 rbi's. Ramirez goes down on strikes to end the middle of the 7th. Middle of 7, 10-3.

Cade Smith comes out for his second inning of work. Bleday grounds out leading off the inning. Kwan's homer went 423 feet. brown goes down swing on a changeup. Seth Brown draws a 2-out walk. Davis goes down swinging on 96 mph fastball. Two more k's for Cade Smith. That's 5. End of 7, 10-3. Smith did his job. Saves the pen some innings of work. Nice!

Smith set a franchise record with those 5 strikeouts. by a rookie. Brennan leads off the 8th with a base on balls. Fry hit by pitch. Runners on first and second with no outs. Freeman down on strikes. Erceg bringing it. That last one was 98 mph. Gimenez flies out to right. Pass ball. Brenan to third. Arias grounds out second to first.. Side retired. Middle of 8, 10-3

Beede on in relief in the bottom of the 8th. McKann strikes out. One down. Butler down on strikes. Two out. Hernaiz flies out to right. Nice pllay by Brennan in the corner. Side Retired. End of 8, 10-3. Guardian pitchers with 13 strikeout and 6 walks.

Hedges flies out to left leading off the 9th. Rocchio lines one off the wall in center for a double off of a 100 mph fastball. Kwan walks on an intentional unintentional walk. Jose drills one up the middle for an rbi base hit. 11-3, Brennan strikes out swinging. Two down. Fry with a 2-out rbi single. 12-3. Millier topping out at 101+ mph. Freeman out on a fly to the track in right. Middle of 9. Man! These guys are mashing the balls. The last three pitchers for the A's have been bringing it at 100 mph. Didn't make any dirfference. The Guards hitters are put wood on the ball.

Beede out for his second inning of work. Noda flies out to Rocchio the begin the home half of the 9th. The Guards with a relentless attack. They're mashing. Bleday flies out to center for out number 2. Rooker strikes out swinging. Game 3 in the book. Guards relief pitchers with 6 shutout, hitless innings with 14 strikeout and 6 walks. I know this is a bad team but there is nothing bad about pummeling 100 mph fastballs.

Gotta like Vogt's new offensive philosophy for attacking the pitchers early in the counts. No doubt. The offense has been pummeling the baseball. Everyone is getting in on the act.

Tanner Bibee struggled through four innings Saturday against the A's at Oakland Coliseum.


Guardians, hitting on all cylinders, sprint to 3-0 under Stephen Vogt with 12-3 win over A’s

Updated: Mar. 30, 2024, 7:19 p.m.|Published: Mar. 30, 2024, 7:10 p.m.

By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com

OAKLAND - Tanner Bibee didn’t have it Saturday afternoon, but everyone else wearing a Guardians uniform did.

The Guardians thumped Oakland, 12-3, at the Coliseum to give manager Stephen Vogt his third straight win as manager. The only other manager to start his career in Cleveland by winning his first three games was Al Lopez in 1951.

The Guardians proved to be handful for the A’s. They reached doubled figures in runs for the first time this season behind 15 hits and six steals. Four of the stolen bases came on double steals.

Offensively, the only disappointment came when Jose Ramirez was robbed of his second first-inning homer in as many days by center fielder JJ Bleday. That was the highlight of the game for the A’s.

Oakland actually held a 3-2 lead after three innings, but couldn’t hold it. The Guardians took the lead for good with three runs in the in the fourth.

Andres Gimenez, who tripled home the Guardians’ first run in the second inning, started the fourth by getting hit with a pitch. He stole second and scored on Gabriel Arias’ single off lefty JP Sears (0-1, 12.27). Arias, who had two hits and two RBI off Sears, batted .083 against lefties last year.

Arias stole second after his RBI single in the fourth. He proceeded to third on a throwing error by catcher Kyle McCann. Austin Hedges sacrifice fly gave Cleveland a 4-3 lead.

Brayan Rocchio kept the inning going with a double. Steven Kwan delivered him with a single for a 5-3 lead. It was the first of three straight hits by Kwan, including his first home run of the season.

The Guardians made it 7-3 with two more runs in the fifth. David Fry started the inning and came around to score on an error by shortstop Nick Allen. Hedges doubled home Arias, who reached on the error.

The A’s committed three errors in the game.

Bidee allowed three runs on six hits in four innings. He struck out four and walked five on 88 pitches.

It was even a good day for Cleveland’s replay team. When Oakland’s Zack Gelof reached on an apparent triple in the first inning, the Guardians challenged the play. They said when a ball gets lodged in the outfield padding it’s a ground rule double.

The umpires agreed and Gelof retreated to second. He stayed there as the next two A’s went down on strikeouts.

Relievers Nick Sandlin, Cade Smith and Tyler Beede closed the game. Smith, making his big league debut, threw two scoreless innings with five strikeouts. The 6-5 Canadian hit 98 mph.

Cleveland’s offense was relentless.

They added two more runs in the sixth, one in the seventh and two in the ninth. In the first three games of this series, they’ve scored 26 runs on 34 hits.

The Guardians are 14-2 against the A’s in the three years. They extended their winning streak against the A’s to seven games.

Next:

RHP Carlos Carrasco (3-8, 6.80) vs. RHP Paul Blackburn (4-7, 4.43) Sunday at 4:07 p.m. ET. Bally Sports Great Lakes, WTAM and the Guardians radio network will carry the game. Pitchers records are from 2023.

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BOX SCORES

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401568498

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CONDENSED GAME

https://www.mlb.com/video/condensed-gam ... 0Games&p=0

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Guardians with 16 extra base hits in the first 3 games.