*Photo from Cleveland.com*
When things are dark, when things are bright, the Cleveland Guardians can always count on Jose Ramirez delivering. Ramirez homered twice, Oscar Gonzalez homered, and the Guardians defeated the San Diego Padres with a 7-0 shutout victory on Wednesday in San Diego.
The win puts the Guardians 10 games above .500, sitting at a 66-56 record this season. It's also their second straight win and 6th in their last 10 games. The main cog to this win was Ramirez. In addition to his two home runs, he went 3-3 at the plate, drawing a walk as well in what was another strong game.
Guardians starter Cal Quantrill said of Ramirez that "He's a menace. I don’t know how else to say it. He’s such an issue to deal with. There’s no clear scouting report on him. For me, so much focus is going into getting a guy like him out that inevitably, the people around start to get better and better pitches to succeed."
Sure enough, it was Ramirez who started the scoring for the Guardians. He blasted a solo home run in the first inning, giving the Guardians an early 1-0 lead. Ramirez started a big 4th inning with another solo homer, doubling the lead to 2-0 by himself. Gonzalez followed that up with a solo shot of his own, and it was a 3-0 game.
Later in the 4th, with Josh Naylor and Owen Miller on base, Luke Maile hit an RBI single to left field, scoring Naylor to make it a 4-0 lead. Miller and Maile then scored thanks to a Steven Kwan single, making the score 6-0 in favor of Cleveland. Ramirez hit a sac fly in the 7th inning, which made the score 7-0, which went final.
Starting for the Guardians was Quantrill, matching up against his old team, the Padres. Quantrill had a fantastic start, getting the win thanks to 5 hits and one walk, striking out 6 hitters in 7 shutout innings. Bryan Shaw pitched a scoreless 8th, and Enyel De Los Santos did the same in the 9th to seal the win.
Quantrill said of starting against his old team that "I wanted that game to be clean. I didn't want to trail off. Finishing an inning is important as a starter. Giving Shaw, in this instance, the best chance to succeed, and that's not with the bases loaded and two out, that's with a fresh inning. That's important."
Getting the start this time for the Padres was Blake Snell, who got hit to the tune of 6 runs on 8 hits and 4 strikeouts in just 3 1/3 innings pitched, taking the loss. Steven Wilson came on and pitched 2 2/3 innings, with Jose Castillo, Josh Hader, and Nabill Crismatt also pitched.
Asked about the recent skid by the team, Padres outfielder Wil Myers said that "We all need to take a look in the mirror and find a way to get this thing done and find ways to win. And, honestly, just find ways to hit with runners in scoring position. At the end of the day, that’s what it is. We’ve got to find a way to drive those runs in."
Up next, the Guardians start a series on Thursday against the Seattle Mariners, with Triston McKenzie getting the start. The Padres travel to face the Kansas City Royals on Friday night, with no announced starter at the time of publishing.
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