Carlos Santana belted a three-run homer in the sixth inning, helping the visiting Cleveland Guardians salvage a split of a doubleheader with a 9-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.
Daniel Schneemann also went deep and joined Santana in scoring on a wild pitch for the Guardians, who avenged a 10-9 loss in the opener of the doubleheader.
Austin Hedges also went deep and Steven Kwan had an RBI double to fuel Cleveland to its sixth win in its last eight games.
The offense was more than enough for Ben Lively (2-2), who allowed one run on two hits and struck out three in 5 1/3 innings.
Riley Adams homered to lead off the sixth inning for the Nationals, who saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt.
After the teams combined for 19 runs on 24 hits in the first game Tuesday, they totaled just two hits over five scoreless innings before Cleveland broke through in the sixth.
Kwan reached on a one-out infield single and Jose Ramirez worked a two-out walk before Santana sent an 0-2 fastball from Brad Lord (1-4) over the wall in right field. The homer was Santana’s fourth of the season and second this month.
Adams responded by depositing a 1-0 fastball from Lively over the wall in right-center field. The homer was Adams’ second of the season — with both of them coming over his last four games.
Lively induced Jacob Young to pop out before being relieved by Tim Herrin, who retired two of the three batters he faced.
Nolan Jones walked to lead off the seventh inning, advanced to second on a pinch-hit single from Schneemann and scored on a fielder’s choice from Brayan Rocchio. Schneemann scored on a wild pitch from Jackson Rutledge and Rocchio scooted home on Kwan’s double to right field to give Cleveland a 6-1 lead.
Santana scored on a wild pitch from Eduardo Salazar in the eighth inning before Schneemann went deep to right to mark his fifth homer of the season and third in his last four games.
Lord yielded three runs on three hits in six innings.
–Field Level Media
