Guardians leave 14 on base in 6-5 extra-innings loss to Rays

Sep 28, 2022 - 3:03 AM

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Harold Ramirez hit a two-run double down the third base line in the eleventh inning to give the Tampa Bay Rays a 6-5 win and snap the Cleveland Guardians’ seven-game winning streak.

Trevor Stephan looked like he was going to breeze through the eleventh inning before walking Wander Franco with two outs and giving up the game-winning double to Ramirez.

Cleveland starting pitcher Shane Bieber went six innings for the Guardians, but saw the game get away from him in a particularly rough fourth inning.

Wander Franco hit a leadoff double to right field, advancing to third base when the throw from Oscar Gonzalez skipped past the cutoff man. The very next pitch, Harold Ramirez smoked an RBI double to the wall in left field to tie the game at 1-1. Ramirez came around to score the go-ahead run on a David Peralta RBI groundout, but Tampa Bay was not done. After Christian Bethancourt singled on a sharp liner to right-center that was nearly caught by a diving Gonzalez, Bieber served up a two-run homer to Jose Siri, giving the Rays a 4-1 lead.

The inning did end on a high note, at least:

Corey Kluber, making his first start at Progressive Field since being traded in 2019, only lasted four innings against his former club. The Guardians struck first against their former ace, taking a 1-0 lead in the third inning thanks to an RBI triple courtesy of Jose Ramirez. After falling behind 4-1 in the top of the fourth inning, Cleveland managed to claw within a run against Kluber in the bottom of the fourth. After back-to-back singles to lead off the inning, Gabriel Arias plated a run on an infield single. With two outs, Steven Kwan cut the Rays’ lead to 4-3 with an RBI single.

After that, Tampa Bay turned the game over to their bullpen, who managed to hold serve until the eighth inning. Arias drew a one-out walk before stealing second base and advancing to third on a groundout. With two outs, Myles Straw reached on an infield single that was originally ruled out before being overturned by replay, scoring Arias to tie the game.

Unfortunately, Cleveland failed to plate the go-ahead run in the ninth and tenth innings, before coming up a run short after falling behind by two runs in the eleventh. Jose Ramirez reached on an RBI infield single to score Steven Kwan but that was close as they would get.

The Guardians left 14 men on base and were 4-for-18 with a runner in scoring position.

Enyel De Los Santos did also pitch the fourth immaculate inning in club history: