Martinez back in the number two spot; he's 3-30 over his past 7 games with one walk to enliven his offense and 329 OPS.

Two All Stars separated by a black hole at the top of our order.

Guardians snap losing streak against Astros, 4-2, with late-inning rally

Updated: Jun. 08, 2025, 5:23 p.m.|Published: Jun. 08, 2025, 4:02 p.m.

By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians snapped a five-game losing streak against Houston with timely hitting and solid starting pitching, securing a 4-2 victory Sunday at Progressive Field to avoid a weekend sweep.

Cleveland rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh after Houston tied the game with two runs off starter Tanner Bibee in the top of the inning.

It was the Guardians’ first win against the Astros at home since June of 2023. Cleveland’s 85 runs scored in the sixth inning or later since May 1 are the second most in the American League during that stretch.

Bibee dominated early for the second consecutive start, but saw a potential win slip away on a single pitch.

After cruising through six innings, he did not get the call on a two-strike cutter to Cam Smith in the seventh with two runners in scoring position. Bibee’s pitch just missed the outside corner, and home plate umpire Paul Clemons did not pull the trigger on what would have been the second out of the inning.

Smith drove Bibee’s next offering into the left field gap for a game-tying two-run double.

Bibee had a brief conversation with Clemons while exiting the mound and said he felt “pure anger” in the moment after not getting the call.

“It was a ball,” Bibee later admitted. “I think that was just me wanting the call, obviously, but it was a ball.”

Bibee finished with six strikeouts, five hits and no walks allowed for his sixth quality start of the season.

The right-hander had held the Yankees hitless through 4 1/3 innings in his previous start and was equally impressive Sunday, needing just nine pitches to retire the Astros in the first inning.

Bibee said when he was faced with a similar situation to his start against the Yankees, he did not back off against Houston.

“I feel like I kept attacking them,” Bibee said. “I didn’t fall behind guys in that seventh inning. I mean, yeah, they’re hits were 60 miles an hour (off the bat), but that’s what I learned.”

Manager Stephen Vogt called Bibee’s outing “special.”

“He could have gone eight, nine innings today with the stuff he had, just making pitches when he needed to,” Vogt said. “This is second or third outing where he’s had everything in his arsenal, and the quick outs he was getting today — that was as efficient as we’ve seen him.”

The Guardians quickly regained momentum in the bottom of the seventh, sticking to their “Guardsball” approach that puts pressure on opposing defenses and bullpens.

Johnathan Rodríguez and Bo Naylor opened the inning with consecutive singles against Houston lefty Steven Okert.

Rodríguez, recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Columbus, was replaced by pinch-runner Nolan Jones before Will Wilson laid down a sacrifice bunt that Okert fielded to the left of the mound and threw wildly past first baseman Christian Walker.

The error allowed Jones to score from second as Naylor moved to third. Steven Kwan followed with a sacrifice fly to center field that extended Cleveland’s lead.

Cleveland’s bullpen secured the victory as Cade Smith (2-2) struck out three batters over 1 2/3 innings of relief to pick up the win, and Emmanuel Clase worked a scoreless ninth for his 14th save. Okert (1-2) took the loss for Houston.

Naylor provided the Guardians’ early offense with a 429-foot home run to right field in the second inning that scored Gabriel Arias, who had doubled. It was Naylor’s eighth homer of the season and sixth extra-base hit in his last 17 games. Naylor, who also singled in the fourth, finished with his second three-hit game of the season.

The Guardians’ backstop, who had one hit in his previous 34 plate appearances, said he anticipated seeing a breaking pitch from Astros rookie left-hander Brandon Walter in that situation.

“I definitely had my sights kind of more over the plate and figured in that spot that I might’ve gotten something to be able to do damage on,” Naylor said. “At that point it was just kind of letting it get deep (in the strike zone) and letting the swing flow.”

José Ramírez extended his career-high on-base streak to 34 games with a base hit in the third inning. Ramírez has recorded a hit in 29 of his last 30 games while batting .402 with a 1.141 OPS during that stretch.

Walter settled in after Naylor’s home run, retiring 13 of the final 16 batters he faced with five strikeouts. He had previously thrown five scoreless innings against Tampa Bay in his only other start for Houston.

Arias added his second double of the game in the eighth inning, a 111-mph drive that hit high off the center field wall against Houston reliever Kaleb Ort. It marked Arias’ fourth career game with at least two extra-base hits. He is batting .364 in 12 career games against Houston.

Vogt said Arias has had great at-bats all year.

“Gabby hits the ball hard,” Vogt said. “He’s going to go through stretches just like any hitter where maybe not getting some results or you have a couple bad games ... Gabby’s continuing to hit the ball hard, having great at-bats and playing excellent, excellent defense.”

Next

Former Guardians manager Terry Francona and the Cincinnati Reds arrive at Progressive Field on Monday to open a three-game series against the Guardians. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. The game will air on CLEGuardians.TV, WTAM 1100 AM, WMMS 100.7 FM, WARF 1350 AM (Spanish) and the Guardians Radio Network.


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CONDENSED GAME

https://www.mlb.com/video/condensed-gam ... nsed-games

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It was Bo Day for the Guardians. Bo has one more homer than his brother; 084 lower OPS [692 to 776]. 39 RBI for Josh is a solid number although not as impressive as last year; he's 16th in the NL.

I was at the game Friday night. My friend commented that Bo was making an adjustment with his swing by bringing his hands down in the game Wednesday . Unfortunately he did not play Friday night.

The Guardians’ offense has gotten off to a slow start in June, but on Monday it gained a key contributor back from the injured list. The Guardians activated outfielder Lane Thomas from the 10-day IL prior to their series opener vs. the Reds on Monday and he was immediately slotted into the lineup; Thomas drew the start in center field, hitting second.

In a corresponding move to Thomas’ activation, the Guardians optioned infielder Will Wilson to Triple-A Columbus. Wilson hit .176 with a .498 OPS in 24 games with the big league club.

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You can change your hand positions all you want. If the eyes aren't there, you're not going to hit.

Good Eye-Hand coordination results in better plate discipline. The better plate discipline a batter has, chances are the batter swings at more pitches inside and fewer outside the strike zone,

If you control the strike zone, you strike out less and draw more walks.

Kwan, Ramirez, Santana, and Naylor are among the best hitters with great Eye-Hand coordination.

Among the worst are Noel, Jones, Arias, and Martinez.

64 games: 203 walks, 523 strikeouts. That's 3.2 walks/game; 8.2 strikeouts/game.

If you are going to start winning ball games, you better improve on the plate discipline.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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Bo has walked 25 times in 176 plate appearances. That's quite high and big improvement over last year. At a result his on base pct is up from 264 to 303. His slugging is up from 350 to 397.

Thomas singled and walked first two times up, batting second. He usually starts slowly but in any case it's good to have him back in the lineup.

Martinez RBI is his 23rd which is pretty solid. His OPS of 621 is not very good and it follows a good start. In his last 30 games he's 20 for 109 ONE WALK and a line of 155/169/293.
One of a long line of our impressive middle infield prospects who have struggled at the big league level.

Ortiz with his worst start in a long time; 4 runs 9 hits including 2 homers.
He leaves two on as he departs with Benson coming up who can't hit against anyone but the Guardians.

Festa rescues him. down 4-3 with half the game to go.

The Vogt magic of 2024 is blowing up in 2025.

Very low % on the success of his pitching & offensive changes. A good reason why we're floundering so badly.

Except for Kwan, Ramirez, Naylor, and Santana, the talent is average at best.

The team batting average with runners in scoring position is 0.233,
This means that on average, the team gets a hit in 23.3% of their at-bats.

Home runs are crowd pleasers but hits with RISP wins ball games.

If this trend continues much longer, it's going to be time to start thinking wild card.

After tonight, we drop to 8 games behind Detroit. 1 game behind the Twins, a half game ahead of the Royals.

Hell, we're only 12 games ahead of the Sox who are playing some pretty damned good baseball lately. Spoilers on the rise. The Sox could be in a position to tell who will win this division.

8 games behind will take weeks to overcome.

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This is too sad to watch.
Detroit looks like they will win tonight.
The Guards free fall to 9 games out.
At this rate, playing .500 ball could be a problem. Only 2 games over now.
Got a feeling the Guardians are going to face a lot of southpaws down the road.
Keep hitting like this and the playoffs could be in jeopardy
Abbott sure made it look easy.
Francona keep on his winning ways in Cleveland.
It's official, the guards drop 9 games behind.
Another stellar pitching performance wasted.
The pitchers should sue for non-support.


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Guardians finally beat Reds, 11-2, behind lefty Logan Allen and 13-hit attack

[ Feast Or Famine: Finally! Some Highlights ]

Updated: Jun. 11, 2025, 5:29 p.m.|Published: Jun. 11, 2025, 3:39 p.m.

By Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians finally found a way to beat the Reds.

After facing five straight left-handed starters from Cincinnati, the Guardians started a lefty of their own in Logan Allen on Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field.

Allen struck out six and allowed two runs over six innings as the Guardians avoided a six-game sweep by their intrastate rivals with an 11-2 victory.

The offense, dormant through the first five games of this series that started in May, supplied Allen with plenty of help. Carlos Santana hit a grand slam and Lane Thomas added a three-run homer to lead Cleveland’s 13-hit attack.

The Guardians’ 11 runs were one more than they scored in the first five games of the series, all of which went in Cincinnati’s favor. It’s why the Reds left town with the Ohio Cup for the first time since 2014.

Will Benson, the man mainly responsible for the Reds winning the cup, received the Frank Robinson Most Outstanding Player award for the series. Benson, who did not play Wednesday because the Guardians started a left-hander, hit .474 (9 for 19) with four homers and eight RBI against Cleveland.

Benson, Cleveland’s top draft pick in 2016, is not the first former Cleveland player to win the award for the Reds. Tyler Naquin, trying to make a comeback as a pitcher with Cleveland, won it for the Reds in 2022.

Naquin, like Benson, was a first-round draft pick by Cleveland.

“That was an outstanding performance by our guys,” said manager Stephen Vogt. “We strung hits together. Had the two big homers. It was just good to see our guys comes out tonight, especially after a game like Tuesday night’s.”

The Reds beat the Guardians 1-0 Tuesday on a three-hitter by Anthony Abbott.

Allen (3-4, 4.28) is 2-0 in two starts against the Reds. Cincinnati has scored two runs in 11 innings against him.

“We had a good game plan,” said Allen. “We used the changeup and the slider. We were able to pop some fastballs in there as well. I felt we were able to lean on the changeup today and keep those guys off balance.”

The Guardians entered Wednesday’s game averaging 2.6 runs per game in June. They wasted little time adding to that meager total.

Jose Ramirez doubled high off the left field wall to score David Fry for a 1-0 lead in the first. The double served as an update to Ramirez’s daily statistical resume.

It extended his on-base streak to a career-high 37 games. It also stretched his current hitting streak to 11 games, meaning he’s hit safely in 32 of his last 33 games.

Finally, the double moved him into sole possession of third place on the franchise list with 379.

“That’s who he is,” said teammate Kyle Manzardo. “Him doing what he’s doing is the least surprising thing.”

But it was not the biggest or loudest hit of the game.

Santana’s slam captured that prize. Santana hit Nick Lodolo’s first pitch over the wall in right center field in the third for a 5-0 lead. Angel Martinez and Thomas, batting leadoff in place of Steven Kwan, opened the inning with singles. Fry struck out, Lodolo hit Ramirez with a pitch in the leg, sending him face first into the dirt at home plate, much to the chagrin of the crowd of 28,564.

When Ramirez dusted himself off and took first base, Santana hit a Lodolo changeup 397 feet into the seats for his eighth homer of the season and his sixth career grand slam.

The slam left two imprints on the game:

It came on Santana’s 16th anniversary of his big league debut with the then-Indians.
It won Edward Moss of Cleveland a new Hyundai because it came during Guardians’ Grand Slam Giveaway inning.
Santana said after the game he had no idea of the slam’s ramifications.

Former Guardians manager Terry Francona started five straight lefties against his old team in this series. They all pitched effectively until the Guardians cornered Lodolo (4-5, 3.76). They reached him for six runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings.

Manzardo, pinch-hitting for Fry, pushed Cleveland’s lead to 7-1 with a two-run, two-out double in the fourth. Manzardo, in a 4 for 33 skid, added a single in sixth when the Guardians scored four more runs thanks to an RBI single and Thomas’ three-run homer.

The homer was Thomas’ first of the season. He was playing in just his 20th game because of two trips to the injured list.

Martinez, another slumping Guardian, found himself Wednesday. The switch-hitting second baseman, in a 4 for 41 slump, singled and scored in each of his first three at-bats.

Next

The Guardians are off on Thursday before opening a nine-game West Coast trip with a three-game series against Seattle starting Friday night at T-Mobile Park.


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CONDENSED GAME

https://www.mlb.com/video/condensed-game-cin-cle-6-11-25?t=condensed-games

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT !!
NOLAN JONES DOUBLE PLAY ON PERFECT THROW TO HOME

https://www.mlb.com/video/christian-enc ... EETEXT&p=0

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I was there today for a perfect day of baseball in sunny weather. Decided to get myself into the game by scoring it like I always used to. Perhaps that led to the victory. Everything went well for the Gs except why was Kwan out again?
homer and 2 more hits for Thomas and we know that we is hot he stays hot. Great hustle by Jose. Slam by Carlos the opposite way. Marinez three hits. NUNEZ 2 HITS!
Logan Allen very solid, a couple rather harmless solo homers.

Don't despair too greatly Joe. The Tigers have lots of young players playing very well and minimal injuries. If we make the Wild Card then anything can happen, see e.g. Indiana Pacers.

We'll have to start a "go-fund-me" account for you, Civ.
We have to get you out to more ball games.