Eduardo Rodriguez scattered four hits across seven innings as the Detroit Tigers defeated the host Cleveland Guardians 5-0 on Wednesday afternoon in the rubber match of a three-game series.
Rodriguez (4-2) walked two batters and struck out eight while improving to 4-0 over his last six starts. He has not lost since April 5 at Houston.
Jason Foley and Chasen Shreve each struck out a batter in a scoreless inning of relief to preserve the shutout.
Javier Baez, Andy Ibanez and Zach McKinstry each finished with two hits for Detroit, which has won seven of its last nine games.
Guardians right-hander Peyton Battenfield (0-4) settled down after a rocky start, retiring the last 10 batters he faced in a six-inning outing. He allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits while striking out four without issuing a walk.
Tyler Freeman recorded two of the four hits for Cleveland, which has not been able to score more than four runs in each of its last 10 games. The Guardians are 4-6 during that stretch.
The Tigers got to Battenfield early, striking for a pair of runs in the first inning. McKinstry led off with a single and scored on Riley Greene’s groundout before Ibanez ripped an RBI double to stake Detroit to a 2-0 lead.
Spencer Torkelson ignited a two-out rally in the third inning with a run-scoring single. Ibanez followed with a base hit, and Akil Baddoo doubled to bring home Torkelson. Ibanez also scored on the play after Guardians right fielder Gabriel Arias’ throw got away from the cutoff man, making it 5-0.
Cleveland nearly staged a two-out rally of its own in the fourth inning after Josh Bell and David Fry walked and Freeman hit an infield single to load the bases. Mike Zunino, however, struck out on three pitches to end the inning.
Fry recorded his first major league hit in the sixth inning, dropping a bloop single into right-center field.
–Field Level Media
