Guardians, Blue Jays Split Twinbill

Cleveland's offense erupted for a big second game, led by Franmil Reyes' third HR of the year.

The afternoon couldn't have started much worse for the Guardians, but the offense erupted in the nightcap and Cleveland has a chance to win a series on Sunday.

After Shane Bieber got rocked and couldn't get through four innings in an 8-3 loss Saturday afternoon, Triston McKenzie delivered a quality start and six different Guardians drove in runs in an 8-2 win to earn the split.

Cleveland has taken two of the first three games in the series with the weekend finale set for 1:40 on Sunday afternoon.

In general, the Guardians have played much better baseball the last week and a half after dropping seven straight games to the Yankees and Angels. A win Sunday would give them a .500 record through the first 28 games of the year, with three of their next four series against AL Central teams.

Shane Bieber allowed a career-worst seven earned runs and didn't record a strikeout for the first time in his Big League career in losing Game 1.

George Springer and Raimel Tapia each went 2-for-5 with 3 RBI in beating up Cleveland pitching in the first game, and Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman continued his stellar start to the season. He's walked only one batter in 38 innings this year with 46 strikeouts.

In Game 2, every Cleveland starter at least got on base as they quickly erased a frustrating afternoon.

Franmil Reyes, who had a nice first game of the series on Thursday with three hits, launched his third homer of the year in the third inning to push the lead to 4-2. Owen Miller and Andres Gimenez drove in the first three runs in the first inning.

Reyes added an RBI single in the fifth, Luke Maile had an RBI double, Steven Kwan singled home a run and Oscar Mercado had a sacrifice fly.

Triston McKenzie gave up two runs on four hits over his six solid innings. He struck out six and walked two.

-----

You May Also Like:

Steven Kwan Launches First Major League Home Run Of Career

Bradley Clears Waivers, Allen Claimed By Orioles

Guardians Split Doubleheader With Padres, Win In Walk-Off Fashion

Guardians Take Game One Of Doubleheader, Top Guardians 5-4

Guardians Farm Report: Gonzalez Grand Slam Propels Columbus To Win

-----

Be sure to stay locked into Cleveland Baseball Insider all the time!

SUBSCRIBE to the CBI YouTube channel
Follow Cleveland Baseball Insider on Twitter: @CBIonSI
Like and follow Cleveland Baseball Insider on Facebook!


Published
Brendan Gulick
BRENDAN GULICK

Brendan Gulick is the publisher for BuckeyesNow, Cleveland Baseball Insider and Cavs Insider on the FanNation Network. He is also an accomplished host and play-by-play voice on TV and radio, including on Big Ten Network and NCAA.com where he's called 45 NCAA national championships. Gulick is an update anchor and fill-in host at 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, Ohio.