The Cleveland Guardians, believe it or not, have sent their two best starters to the mound on consecutive days and lost. On Thursday, Parker Messick was excellent but got no support from the offense. On Friday, it was Gavin Williams’ turn, but he failed to deliver a strong start, and his team lost 7-5 to the San Diego Padres at Progressive Field.
The Guardians went 2-4 in their road trip in Chicago and Detroit and hoped that a return home might help spark a nice run. That wasn’t the case on Friday, at least, and the team is now 59-64, buried in fourth place in the AL Central.
Cleveland is now 2-8 in the last 10 games and has lost 16 of its last 21. The team is 8-18 since the All-Star break and 3-9 in August. It has been quite a debacle.
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) August 15, 2026
Williams opened the game with three consecutive zeroes, but started to wobble in the fourth and unraveled in the fifth. He ended up allowing five runs in 4.1 innings, striking out five. Surrendering seven hits (including two homers) and walking four is not a good combination, though.
The Guardians scored first in the bottom of the second. Nathaniel Lowe, who came over before the deadline, hit a solo shot that put the first run on the scoreboard.
An inning later, the struggling Brayan Rocchio hit another solo blast to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead. Later that inning, Lowe came through again, this time with an RBI single that plated Steven Kwan.
Xander Bogaerts cut the Guardians’ lead to just one with a two-run shot in the top of the fourth. An inning later, San Diego would take control of the game.
Fernando Tatis Jr. opened the fifth with a game-tying solo homer. A few minutes later, Luis Campusano hit a two-run double that made things 5-3 San Diego.
Petey Halpin put the Guardians back on the scoreboard with an RBI double in the sixth, making it a one-run game. However, Campusano hit another RBI double and then Bogaerts brought Jackson Merrill home (via a sac fly) with San Diego’s seventh run.
Lowe scored the Guardians’ fifth run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth, but it wasn’t enough. The first baseman was Cleveland’s best player of the night, falling a triple short of the cycle and going 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. Genao and Rocchio also racked up two hits each.
Angel Martinez went 0-for-5, and Travis Bazzana went 0-for-4. Each one accumulated two punchouts.
The bullpen surrendered two runs in 4.2 innings, both by Colin Holderman. Craig Yoho, Franco Aleman, Tim Herrin, and Matt Festa all had scoreless appearances.
The two teams will do it again on Saturday at 7:10 pm ET. Joey Cantillo will take the ball from Cleveland to try and get them back to their winning ways.
NEXT: Guardians Pitcher Lands On Impressive List Among MLB's Top Players
