Right-hander Ben Lively, who has allowed more than three runs in only two of his 15 starts this season, will try for his ninth win of the season when he takes the mound Sunday afternoon for the American League Central-leading Cleveland Guardians in the rubber game of their three-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Lively (8-4, 3.59 ERA) gave up three runs in four innings in his only previous start against Tampa Bay, came back in 2018 when he was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Right-hander Ryan Pepiot (5-5, 4.20) will start for the Rays, who will be trying for their seventh series win in their last eight tries. A win would also give Tampa Bay a .500 record heading into the All-Star break.
Cleveland snapped a three-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory on Saturday afternoon as rookie Jhonkensy Noel hit a two-run, pinch-hit, go-ahead home run in 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 “Big Christmas”, drove an 0-1 slider from reliever Garrett Cleavinger 424 feet deep into the bleachers in left-center for his fourth homer in just 35 major league at-bats since being called up from Triple-A Columbus on June 26.
“Big Christmas comes through again,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Since he’s come up, his at-bat quality has been off the charts. And when he does get his pitch, he doesn’t miss it.”
“That was electric, coming off the bench to hit that ball,” said second baseman Andres Gimenez, who had two hits and an RBI.
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said he liked the matchup with the left-handed Cleavinger against the right-handed Noel.
“Cleav has done such a good job for us basically all season long,” Cash said. “Got ahead of him and then Noel saw that one good one (and) jumped all over it for the biggest hit of the day.”
It was just the third road win in Cleveland’s last 11 tries. The victory, combined 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 the best record in the American League.
Tampa Bay, which won the series opener 2-0 on Friday behind seven shutout innings by Taj Bradley, had eight hits in Saturday’s loss (including a triple and two doubles). But the Rays finished 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The Rays were also 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position in Friday’s win and are just 8-for-72 in that category in their last eight games.
“That’s a trend,” Cash said. “We’ve got to kind of kick that trend. You feel it in the dugout, you feel it throughout the game. We’re capable of getting big hits. They’re not coming right now. Hopefully we can reset that a little bit tomorrow heading into the break.”
–Field Level Media