Baseball
Baseball
Guardians’ Offense Explodes with Seven Homers, Handing Twins Ace Historic Defeat
The Cleveland Guardians’ offense, often dormant this season, erupted for a remarkable 13-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night at Progressive Field, powered by a season-high seven home runs. This offensive outburst, just one shy of the franchise record, saw two players hit multiple long balls, leading to a historic outing for Twins’ starting pitcher Joe Ryan.
Ryan, an All-Star ace, endured a challenging night, surrendering six of Cleveland’s seven home runs. This performance tied a Minnesota single-game franchise record for most homers allowed by a single pitcher in a game and made Ryan just the 13th player in Major League Baseball history to give up six long balls in one contest. He was removed after four innings, having allowed eight earned runs on ten hits, while managing only three strikeouts on 78 pitches.
The Guardians wasted no time, with Brayan Rocchio and Rhys Hoskins hitting back-to-back home runs in the first inning. Petey Halpin, whose batting average sits at .194, notched the first home run of his career in the second, followed by Travis Bazzana. Hoskins then added his second homer in the third, and Halpin followed suit in the fourth. Patrick Bailey also contributed a solo shot. Halpin and Hoskins became the first Cleveland teammates since August 15, 2019, to each hit two home runs in the same game. Halpin’s second blast was particularly notable, coming off a pitch 4.01 feet off the ground, tying for the highest pitch hit for a homer this season.
Cleveland’s offensive onslaught continued against the Twins’ bullpen, which included Kody Funderburk, Tommy Nance, and Woo-Suk Go, who collectively gave up an additional five earned runs. The Guardians finished with 19 hits and 11 extra-base hits, both season highs. On the other side, Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee pitched six innings. The Twins scored two runs in the first inning with an RBI triple from Brooks Lee and a sacrifice fly from Alan Roden. Trevor Larnach notched an RBI single in the seventh while Victor Caratini hit an RBI double in the top of the eighth.
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