The Guardians Achieved This Offensive First In Loss To White Sox
The Cleveland Guardians fell in the first game of a scheduled four-game series against the Chicago White Sox by a final score of 3-2 on Thursday night in Chicago.
Despite the defeat, Cleveland’s offense achieved something it hadn’t all year, as it nearly completed a comeback from being down 3-0.
After the first two Guardians hitters were retired in order to begin the top of the eighth inning, José Ramírez stepped up to the plate. The five-time MLB All-Star eventually golfed a low slider to right center field for his eighth home run of the season, putting Cleveland on the board.
In the ensuing at-bat, Josh Naylor drove a four-seam fastball to deep right center field for the Guardians’ second consecutive solo home run, cutting the team’s deficit to one. With this home run, Naylor became the first Cleveland player to 10 home runs this year.
According to Stathead, this marks the first time this season that the Guardians have homered in consecutive plate appearances.
Before Thursday night, Cleveland had last done so on September 26, 2023, when Kole Calhoun and Andrés Giménez hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds. Ramírez and Naylor had last hit back-to-back homers on July 6, 2023, when the tandem began the bottom of the sixth inning with a pair of solo shots against the Kansas City Royals.
As a team, the Guardians’ home run power is well ahead of its 2023 pace. Cleveland currently has 40 home runs in its first 38 games, which are tied for ninth in MLB. Through 38 games a year ago, the Guardians had just 20 home runs, which were the fewest in MLB and four fewer than the next MLB team.
LOGAN POTOSKY
Logan Potosky is an aspiring play-by-play sports broadcaster who, to date, has called approximately 350+ hours of professional, college, and high school sporting events. He is currently the Play-by-Play Broadcaster for the Lake County Captains, the High-A Affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. He graduated from John Carroll University in May of 2023 with a degree in Communication, with a concentration in Digital Media, and a minor in Entrepreneurship.