Jul 13, 2024; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Cleveland Guardians outfielder Jhonkensy Noel (43) celebrates with =with outfielder Tyler Freeman (2) after hitting a two run house run in opposition to the Tampa Bay Rays within the eighth inning at Tropicana Subject. Necessary Credit score: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports activities Proper-hander Ben Energetic, who has allowed greater than three runs in solely two of his 15 begins this season, will strive for his ninth win of the season when he takes the mound Sunday afternoon for the American League Central-leading Cleveland Guardians within the rubber recreation of their three-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Energetic (8-4, 3.59 ERA) gave up three runs in 4 innings in his solely earlier begin in opposition to Tampa Bay, got here again in 2018 when he was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Proper-hander Ryan Pepiot (5-5, 4.20) will begin for the Rays, who can be making an attempt for his or her seventh collection win of their final eight tries. A win would additionally give Tampa Bay a .500 document heading into the All-Star break.
Cleveland snapped a three-game dropping streak with a 4-2 victory on Saturday afternoon as rookie Jhonkensy Noel hit a two-run, pinch-hit, go-ahead house run within the eighth inning.
With one out and Tyler Freeman at first after getting a broken-bat pinch-hit single, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound Noel, nicknamed “Huge Christmas”, drove an 0-1 slider from reliever Garrett Cleavinger 424 ft deep into the bleachers in left-center for his fourth homer in simply 35 main league at-bats since being known as up from Triple-A Columbus on June 26.
“Huge Christmas comes by way of once more,” Guardians supervisor Stephen Vogt mentioned. “Since he is come up, his at-bat high quality has been off the charts. And when he does get his pitch, he does not miss it.”
“That was electrical, coming off the bench to hit that ball,” mentioned second baseman Andres Gimenez, who had two hits and an RBI.
Tampa Bay supervisor Kevin Money mentioned he favored the matchup with the left-handed Cleavinger in opposition to the right-handed Noel.
“Cleav has carried out such job for us mainly all season lengthy,” Money mentioned. “Bought forward of him after which Noel noticed that one good one (and) jumped throughout it for the most important hit of the day.”
It was simply the third highway win in Cleveland’s final 11 tries. The victory, mixed with Baltimore’s 5-1 loss to the New York Yankees, means the Guardians are assured to be going into the All-Star break with one of the best document within the American League.
Tampa Bay, which received the collection opener 2-0 on Friday behind seven shutout innings by Taj Bradley, had eight hits in Saturday’s loss (together with a triple and two doubles). However the Rays completed 0-for-11 with runners in scoring place. The Rays had been additionally 1-for-16 with runners in scoring place in Friday’s win and are simply 8-for-72 in that class of their final eight video games.
“That is a pattern,” Money mentioned. “We have got to sort of kick that pattern. You are feeling it within the dugout, you’re feeling it all through the sport. We’re able to getting large hits. They don’t seem to be coming proper now. Hopefully we will reset that somewhat bit tomorrow heading into the break.”
–Subject Stage Media
