Andy Ibanez singled, homered and scored three times to help the visiting Detroit Tigers post a 6-2 win against the Cleveland Guardians in the opener of a three-game series on Monday night.
Eric Haase had three hits and scored two runs and Riley Greene added two hits and two RBIs for the Tigers, who have won six of seven.
Tigers starter Joey Wentz (1-3) allowed two runs and three hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked three.
Guardians starter Tanner Bibee (1-1) gave up four runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings, striking out two and walking four.
Jose Ramirez homered for Cleveland, which had won two in a row.
The Guardians took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Steven Kwan led off with a double, took second on Amed Rosario’s single and scored on a double-play grounder by Ramirez.
Ibanez and Haase opened the third with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners. Ibanez scored on a slow roller to short by Zach McKinstry, who was initially called out at first, but the ruling was overturned.
Haase came home on a one-out single by Javier Baez for a 2-1 lead, and Nick Maton made it 3-1 with a double off the wall in right.
Ibanez and Haase reached base again to start the fourth. With one out, Greene doubled into the gap in right-center to score Ibanez and make it 4-1, but Haase was thrown out at the plate.
Ramirez went deep to start the fourth and cut the deficit to 4-2.
Ibanez hit the first pitch from Eli Morgan in the sixth inning deep over the fence in left for a 5-2 lead.
Wentz walked the first two batters to open the sixth, but Ramirez popped out and Josh Bell flied out before Will Vest entered and got pinch hitter Josh Naylor to ground out to end the inning.
The Guardians had runners on the corners with one out in the seventh but again failed to capitalize.
Detroit tacked on another run in the eighth on an RBI single by Greene to make it 6-2.
–Field Level Media
