Series Opener Goes To The Guardians, Beat Red Sox 5-2

The Cleveland Guardians defeat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 behind a strong start from Shane Bieber.

The Cleveland Guardians did something against the Boston Red Sox that they haven't done in a few weeks. That's winning the first game of the series. The Guardians came into their series with the Red Sox on the wrong side of their last three series. 

The tide finally turned for Cleveland on Friday night as they won the series opener 5-2 behind solid pitching and bats that got off to a hot start.

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Cleveland wasted no time and immediately put up two runs in the first inning before even taking the field on defense. The early 2-0 lead came thanks to a sacrifice fly from Josh Naylor and an RBI double from Josh Bell.

The Guardians would pile on thanks to home runs from both Mike Zunino and Will Brennan. 

Now we have to talk about Shane Bieber who looked like his vintage self against Boston. He pitched 7.0 innings and gave up two runs and struck out four. Bieber has had starts with higher strikeout numbers, but he forced the Red Sox to make weak contact which turned into easy outs. 

The most encouraging part of this start was seeing the command Bieber had with his pitches. He left the game after throwing 99 pitches with 63 of them as strikes. It's no secret the former Cy Young winner has had a rocky start to the year so this start was a nice confidence booster for him. 

The Guardians will try to clinch the series win on Saturday with Zach Plesac on the mound. However, Mother Nature might have different plans with there being a lot of rain in the forecast. 

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Photo Credit © Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports