All-Star outfielder Riley Greene had four RBIs in his ninth career multi-homer game as the visiting Detroit Tigers bounced back from a doubleheader sweep, beating the Cleveland Guardians 6-0 on Saturday night.
Framber Valdez (9-10) pitched seven scoreless innings, matching his season high, and allowed three hits. The left-hander struck out three, walked one and hit a batter in shutting down American League playoff-hopeful Cleveland (72-71).
The Guardians are now tied with Toronto for the final wild-card berth after the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 later in the day, while Detroit (65-77) moved within 6 1/2 games of the spot.
Greene hit two solo home runs against Parker Messick (11-9), a 407-foot drive in the first and a 421-foot blast in the sixth, breaking a homer drought that lasted more than a month. His previous homer occurred on Aug. 4 against the Seattle Mariners.
Greene also scored three times. He delivered an RBI single in the third and an RBI double in the seventh, with Gleyber Torres scoring on both hits.
All-Star rookie Messick had a career-high 12 strikeouts over six innings and allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks. Cleveland’s Austin Peterson made his major league debut with two scoreless innings of relief.
Dillon Dingler added a sacrifice fly later in the seventh, and Ben Malgeri collected his third hit with an RBI single that scored Greene and extended Detroit’s lead to 6-0.
On Friday, Cleveland won both games in walk-off fashion. Brayan Rocchio’s homer in the ninth and Travis Bazzana’s RBI single in the 10th did the honors, respectively.
Rookie outfielder Chase DeLauter (right wrist sprain) was unavailable for the Guardians, but outfielder Angel Martinez and shortstop Rocchio were in the lineup after running into each other while pursuing a popup on Friday.
Tigers third baseman Hao-Yu Lee started Saturday’s game, telling manager A.J. Hinch that he was not bothered by the left shin contusion that resulted from his collision with Austin Hedges at home plate in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader.
–Field Level Media
