The Cleveland Guardians didn’t get much going in the early stages of their three-city road trip.
They couldn’t take one game from the Seattle Mariners, and the three-game sweep ended on a low note.
Notably, plenty of that had to do with Luis L. Ortiz, who had one of his worst outings of the season in the series finale.
The young pitcher allowed at least one hitter to reach base in each of his six innings.
Things got out of control early, as he gave up five runs in the second inning, including a grand slam by J.P. Crawford.
That’s why Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who’s usually a “glass half-full” kind of guy, acknowledged that it was a tough outing for Ortiz.
“I thought Luis really struggled with his command,” Vogt said. “We saw it for some innings, it was sharp. But the free bases got to him. … When you give a team like that free baserunners, there’s not a whole lot of room for error. Obviously not his best performance, the big blow really got us.”
Ortiz finished with six runs allowed with five hits and five walks.
The Guardians’ offense didn’t do much to help.
They had just four hits and never got a runner to second base.
It was the second time this season they failed to get a runner in scoring position.
To add insult to injury, Jose Ramirez went 0-for-3 in the 6-0 loss, ending his career-best on-base streak at 39 games.
It was the longest single-season on-base streak by any Guardians player since Jim Thomas reached base safely in a franchise-best 55 games in 2002, and Ramirez trailed only Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies (41 games) in the majors this season.
NEXT: Guardians Infielder Prospect Had Notable Career Milestone In Double-A
