José Ramírez’s three-run homer powers Guardians past Tigers

The Cleveland Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-1, Friday night, backed by a solid start from Aaron Civale and a three-run homer courtesy of José Ramírez that broke the game open.

Myles Straw, who entered the game with a .157/.279/.196 slash line in the month of May, collected three hits for the first time since April 29. His infield single in the sixth inning helped spark a four-run outburst and his leadoff double in the eighth inning turned into an insurance run for Cleveland.

Aaron Civale put together his best start of the season, surrendering three hits, one walk, and one unearned run over 6.1 innings. The Tigers aren’t exactly a formidable lineup, but Civale deserves credit for taking care of business. He recorded just three strikeouts — Detroit only whiffed eight times all night — but induced nine groundball outs. Unfortunately, Civale’s night ended prematurely in the seventh inning. He exited the game with a left glute cramp.

Tigers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal held the Guardians scoreless through five innings before taking a line drive off his left shin to end the fifth. He was able to leave the field under his own power but limped the whole way to the dugout. Skubal scattered four hits over five innings of work, racking up five strikeouts. With no walks issued, he commanded the strike zone and Cleveland had trouble honing in on his four-seam fastball, which recorded a 48% CSW%.

Things spiraled out of control for Detroit from there. Jacob Barnes took over for Skubal in the sixth inning and only needed five pitches to turn a 0-0 tie into a 4-0 lead for the Guardians. Austin Hedges doubled off the wall in left-center before advancing to third base on a Myles Straw infield single. Amed Rosario lined an RBI single to center field to score Hedges and give Cleveland the lead. But Barnes’ biggest mistake was against José Ramírez, who launched a first-pitch fastball into the right field stands for a three-run homer. This was that pitch:

Baseball Savant

The Guardians tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning. Straw hit a leadoff double down the first base line and Rosario followed suit, scoring Straw on an RBI double down the first base line. Rosario eventually scored from third on a sac fly by Owen Miller.