The Cleveland Guardians erupted for four runs in the sixth inning to break open a scoreless game and defeat the visiting Detroit Tigers 6-1 on Friday.
Both starting pitchers were knocked out of the game with injuries.
Cleveland right-hander Aaron Civale (2-3) recorded his best outing of the season. He pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed three hits, one run, no earned runs and one walk. Civale struck out three batters.
Javier Baez reached on an infield single with one out in the seventh inning for the Tigers. Jeimer Candelario then hit a bouncer that Civale dropped for an error, as Baez advanced to third. Civale ended up on the seat of his pants near first base on the play.
While pitching to Spencer Torkelson, he was replaced by Enyel De Los Santos, who allowed a sacrifice fly to drive in Baez and leave the score 4-1.
Civale came out of the game with a cramp. The veteran is now 7-0 in eight career starts against Detroit.
Tigers ace Tarik Skubal was knocked out of the game after the fifth inning. The left-hander was hit on his left leg by a line drive by Ernie Clement, which deflected to third baseman Candelario, who threw to second for an inning-ending forceout. Skubal hobbled off the field and was in obvious pain in the dugout.
Skubal allowed just four hits, no runs and no walks. He struck out five.
He was replaced by Jacob Barnes (3-1), who was tagged with the loss. The Guardians didn’t waste any time getting to him. Through his first five pitches, Cleveland had scored four runs, capped by Jose Ramirez’s ninth home run.
Austin Hedges led off the sixth inning with a drive off the wall in left field for a double. Myles Straw followed with an infield single. Amed Rosario then singled to drive in Hedges for Cleveland’s first run.
Ramirez, who fouled a pitch off his leg on Thursday and had X-rays taken, then drilled a three-run homer to give him a major-league-leading 37 RBIs.
The Guardians extended their lead to 6-1 with two runs in the eighth. Back-to-back doubles by Straw and Rosario led to the first run of the inning, while the second came home on Owen Miller’s sacrifice fly.
–Field Level Media
