The Twins refuse to let the Guardians ride off into the sumset peacefully. We're still 6 games behind.

Do we know if anyone has died from boredom during a Guardians game this year ?

But we win 5-2 in 10. Not without drama. Tying run scores on a wild pitch that Minnesota was trying to either get a swing or hbp. They didn't get either.

Cleveland Guardians' Kole Calhoun hits a three-run home run against the Minnesota Twins during the tenth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Minneapolis. Bo Naylor and Jose Ramirez also scored as the Guardians won 5-2.



SPORTS: CLEVELAND GUARDIANS

Guardians rally for a 5-2 win on Calhoun's 3-run homer in the 10th and cut Twins' lead to 5 games

By: Associated PressPosted at 6:31 PM, Aug 30, 2023 and last updated 5:31 PM, Aug 30, 2023

(AP) —

The Cleveland Guardians aren't conceding, despite all that has gone wrong for the defending AL Central champions this season.

Kole Calhoun, of all players, sure won't allow it.

Calhoun hit a three-run home run in the 10th inning to cap a late comeback against the Minnesota bullpen, and the Guardians beat the Twins 5-2 on Wednesday to trim their division deficit to five games.

“These guys don’t quit," said Calhoun, who joined the club less than four weeks ago. “They haven’t quit since I’ve been here.”

The 35-year-old outfielder, who has been playing first base out of necessity after three other organizations let him go this season, hit an 11th-inning tiebreaking double Sunday at Toronto to give the Guardians (64-70) that series win. They went 4-2 on this road trip.

“It's a little energy that we needed,” starting pitcher Tanner Bibee said. “It’s not even September yet.”

Five relievers had a hand in squandering another stellar start by Sonny Gray, who gave the Twins seven scoreless innings. Emilio Pagán (5-2) took the loss despite pitching the best of the bunch. He got the first two outs in the 10th and intentionally walked José Ramírez before yielding to rookie Kody Funderburk, who made his major league debut Monday with two perfect innings against the Guardians.

Calhoun crushed his 3-0 fastball into the seats behind right-center, prompting a collective sigh from the crowd of 20,169.

“There's a lot of trust with him,” manager Terry Francona said, “and he kind of proved us right.”

Said Funderburk: "I gave him a heater, and he hit it. You can’t fall behind.”

Trevor Stephan (6-4) struck out the side in the ninth for the win. Emmanuel Clase pitched a perfect 10th for his 36th save in 45 chances.

The two teams play three more times this year, next week in Cleveland, with only 28 games to go. The season series is tied at five wins apiece. Minnesota has been in first place for 143 of 153 days.

“I think we still are in a good spot as a team,” Gray said. “We just let one get away.”

Gray threw only 81 pitches. He left with a 2-0 lead on Jorge Polanco's two-run single with the bases loaded in the fifth off Bibee, but that was the last hit for the Twins (69-65).

Griffin Jax gave up a leadoff double to Arias in the eighth inning, and Steven Kwan drove him in with a two-out single off Caleb Thielbar.

Jhoan Duran took his fifth blown save in 28 opportunities after throwing a two-out, two-strike wild pitch that allowed Andrés Giménez to score the tying run. Duran, who has only one perfect inning in his last 17 appearances, put himself in trouble with a one-out walk to Giménez.

“Keep doing what I do,” Duran said, "and I know that it’ll eventually come.”

FOR STARTERS

Gray scattered three hits and one walk while lowering his ERA to an AL-best 2.92 among pitchers with a qualified amount of innings. The All-Star right-hander, who has taken no decisions in 15 of his 28 starts, didn't record a single victory in May, June or July. He won three of six starts in August, posting a 2.04 ERA over 39 2/3 innings.

Bibee had eight strikeouts in five innings after Tuesday's starter Gavin Williams was forced out with knee soreness after only one inning.

STRUGGLING CORREA

Polanco reached base all four times he batted, including a leadoff double in the fourth, but Carlos Correa hitting behind him in the order didn't help him score.

Correa struck out twice, popped out in foul territory after Polanco's single in the fifth and grounded into a double play in the eighth, triggering some boos from the fans in the club sections behind the plate. Correa, who signed a six-year, $200 million contract with the Twins during the offseason, leads the major leagues with 28 grounded-into-double-plays.

UP NEXT

Guardians: RHP Cal Quantrill (2-6, 6.45 ERA) will pitch Friday to open a three-game series against Tampa Bay. Quantrill has missed nearly two months with shoulder inflammation, his second injured list stint this season. The Rays had yet to declare a starter.

Twins: RHP Joe Ryan (9-8, 4.33 ERA) takes the mound Friday in Texas to begin a three-game series. RHP Max Scherzer (12-5, 3.71 ERA) starts for the Rangers.

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Twinkies awful bullpen exposed again .

I am a real fan of Pagan, he is not bad against most of the league but terrible vs. Cleveland.

Nice effort tonight for Quantrill ( 6INN 2R ). Just what the doctor ordered. Coupled with a Twins win keeps us 5 back. Better than 6 back. We're still alive.

Arias also showed up going 2-3 with a run scored and an rbi.

Naylor's been doing well hitting out of the 8th slot in the lineup. Drop him one spot, bring up Johnathan Rodriguez and plug him in the 8th slot.

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3 nicely played games in a row with 5-2 4-2 and 3-2 wins. Making the playoffs is very unlikely but looking forward to some solid baseball in celebration of Tito's final month of a Hall of Fame managerial career.

It would be nice if Giolito pitches for us like he has against us over the years; recent history of his month in Los Angeles is hardly promising, Syndegard was more successful for CLE than Giolito was an Angel

off to a 4-1 lead behind a 2 run homer by Arias. But Allen gave up a 3 run blast to tie it and Sandlin a solo shot so it's 5-4 Rays ahead in the top of the 7th.
2 hits each for the new stars: Arias, Calhoun and Naylor. 2 left in scoring position each by Brennan and Ramirez

Moore's Cleveland debut: 4 up, 4 down
Lopez in now, top of the 8th, still down 1

4 up, 3 down for a scoreless 8th by Lopez. G's go quietly.
Cleveland 1-9 with RISP hasn't helped. Bottom of the 9th hitters will be: Brennan, Arias and Naylor who total 5 of the 9 hits.

DeLosSantos in the top of the 9th comes first.

Great game Saturday night; 2 rallies; top notch work by Arias and Naylor and Kwan and key steal by Straw; great defensive play by Giminez. Good relief work especially the 2 new guys.

An amazingly bad throw by Siri to end it; I took at look at his stats, he has 4 assists in his 2 years in the minors, 193 games; Kwan meanwhile has 16 in 2 years, 252 games; Brennan with 7 om 97 games.
The guy racing home with the winning run was speedy catcher. The ball was hit into very shallow CF; maybe Siri should have let the RF he has 5 assists in 100 games.

Cleveland Guardians

Steven Kwan comes through not once, but twice in Guardians’ 7-6 win over Rays in 11 innings

By Quincy Wheeler Sep 3, 2023, 7:00am EDT

The Guardians walked off the Rays in the bottom of the 11th, 7-6.

Here are the highlights:

Gabriel Arias hit a two-run homer

Kwan tied the game in the bottom of the 9th with a two-out single and won the game with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th on an aggressive send from third-base coach, Mike Sarbaugh, good running by Bo Naylor and a lackadaisical effort from Rays centerfielder Jose Siri who was maybe still thinking about his bat flip and home run from earlier off of Nick Sandlin.

Jose Tena hit a game-tying single in the bottom of the 10th after pinch-running. I love this kid.

Ramon Laureano made an amazing throw to get a runner out at second, and Andres Gimenez made an insane play on a slow chopper to get an out in the top of the 10th.
Kwan had 2 hits, Kole Calhoun had 2 hits, Will Brennan had 2 hits, Arias had 2 hits, Bo Naylor had 2 hits and a walk, and Gimenez had a patented hit-by-pitch and an intentional walk.

The new guys, Matt Moore and Reynaldo Lopez, each had scoreless innings, as did Enyel De Los Santos and Emmanuel Clase and Sam Hentges only allowed the zombie runner to score.

The Guardians look to try to sweep the series on Sunday, sending Xzavion Curry out to face right-hander Taj Bradley.

The Twins beat the Rangers who are in a huge free fall, so the Guardians remain five games back. There are some rumors on the interwebs that Josh Naylor might be back Sunday. Time will tell.

Around the Minor Leagues

The Clippers won 4-1 behind a 2 for 4 with a homer game from George Valera, a 2 for 3 with 2 doubles and a walk game for Kyle Manzardo, and six innings of one-run ball from Joey Cantillo, who allowed 4 hits, 3 walks and had 5 K’s.

The Rubber Ducks lost 4-2, Juan Brito had another two walks and Aaron Bracho continued his insane breakout season after dropping his switch-hitting approach with a 2-run homer, his 17th of the season.

The Lake County Captains won 8-3 behind a two-run homer from Kahlil Watson, two hits and a walk from catcher Cooper Ingle, two hits from Nate Furman and a typical Steve Hajjar start - 3.2 innings, 5 K’s, 2 hits and 8 walks.

The Hillcats won 6-4 in a game featuring another Wuilfredo Antunez homer as he looks to be finally breaking out, a 4 for 5 game for Angel Zarate, and three walks for Jose Devers. Feels like Antunez, Zarate and Devers would all be good candidates to head up to Lake County for these last two weeks, especially if DeLauter gets to experience some time in Akron.

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Zack Meisel
@ZackMeisel
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2h
Josh Naylor is back and batting third. Oscar Gonzalez back to AAA.

Guardians reinstate Josh Naylor from injured list

12:04 PM CDT

CLEVELAND --

Josh Naylor’s back. And not a moment too soon.

After spending a little more than a month on the shelf with a right oblique strain Naylor was activated off the injured list ahead of the Guardians’ Sunday afternoon tilt against the Rays. It's a move that the Guardians hope will help them narrow the gap against the Twins in the AL Central.

Outfielder Oscar Gonzalez was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move.

Cleveland entered Sunday’s series-finale against the Rays five games behind the Twins in the American League Central. While Cleveland is riding a four-game winning streak, it hasn’t been able to gain a game on the Twins -- thanks to Minnesota taking the first two games of its series against the Rangers.

Naylor began to feel discomfort in his side on July 31, and was scratched from Cleveland’s lineup a day later when the pain continued into his batting-practice session. Two days later, he underwent an MRI that revealed the strain. His four-week stint on the injured list lined up with the initial forecast that he’d miss between three to six weeks.

Naylor appeared in three games with the Double-A Akron RubberDucks, going 4-for-9 with two RBIs.

Naylor will look to help jumpstart an offense that has struggled to produce without him in the lineup. The Guardians had a team batting average of .234 in the 30 games that Naylor missed (the eighth-worst mark in baseball), with the least number of home runs (22) and tied for the second-to-last RBIs (104) in that span.

José Ramírez’s production has taken a hit without the presence of Naylor in the lineup, as the All-Star hit .207 in August and was recently moved up to the two-hole in Cleveland’s lineup.

Naylor’s reinstatement finishes off a week that saw a mini-remake of the Guardians roster, thanks to the addition of former Angels pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Matt Moore via waivers on Thursday. López and Moore both made their Guardians debuts on Saturday, combining for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

“We got some help to try and remain relevant in [the division race] since we have an uphill fight, as we know,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said Friday. “[The front office] is trying to give us a better chance, which I think everyone appreciates.”

Last week the Guardians managed to grab two out of three games against the Twins without Naylor, which helped encourage Cleveland’s front office to pull the trigger on grabbing Moore, Giolito and López on waivers. Now, that quartet will look to help Cleveland find success against the Twins in a huge three-game series.

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