The Cleveland Guardians hadn’t been playing their finest baseball in the last couple of weeks.
In fact, they had lost three straight games and seven of the last nine heading into action on Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers.
They had dropped the series opener on Monday, so for many reasons, Tuesday’s affair was a must-win one for Cleveland.
Thankfully for them and fans in attendance at Progressive Field, the team delivered.
“UPDATES: José Ramírez homers as AL Central-leading Guardians end 3-game slide with 5-4 win over Tigers,” AP’s Tom Withers tweeted.
UPDATES: José Ramírez homers as AL Central-leading Guardians end 3-game slide with 5-4 win over Tigers https://t.co/xGztyVxqvO
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) July 24, 2024
The 5-4 win was of the hard-fought variety, against a pesky Tigers team that won’t go away as easily as in years past.
Xzavion Curry started the game and gave the Guardians 4.1 solid innings in which he conceded two runs.
It wasn’t a very long performance, but it put the team in a position to win and they did just that.
Ramirez, of course, was the hero of the night.
He went 2-for-5 with a home run, a run scored, and two RBI to lift his team to the victory that finally broke the bad stretch of play.
He had a lot of help, though.
Steven Kwan reached double-digit home runs for the first time in his career when he hit his 10th of the year, and rookie Jhonkensy Noel also went yard.
Cade Smith had a marvelous relief appearance of 1.2 frames, no runs, and three strikeouts, and Emmanuel Clase only needed nine pitches to get his 30th save of the year.
For a night, at least, the Guardians looked like their early-season version and that’s awfully promising.
NEXT: MLB Insider Makes Shocking Comments About Guardians Deadline Plans
