DETROIT (AP) — José Ramírez bounced back from one of the worst games of his career with a three-run homer in the sixth inning as the Cleveland Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on Wednesday.
“I didn't want to get too frustrated about yesterday,” Ramírez said through a translator. “I knew I would get another chance today.”
Paul Quantrill (1-1) pitched six shutout innings before leaving after a line drive hit him on the leg. He allowed four hits and a walk, striking out four. Three Cleveland relievers followed, with Emmanuel Clase pitching the ninth for his sixth save.
“He's fine — he was more upset that I took him out of the game than he was about getting hit,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “He was over 80 pitches and I wasn't going to take any chances, but he would have gone back out there.”
With the game scoreless after five innings, Steven Kwan walked to start the sixth and moved up on Andrés Giménez’s base hit. Ramírez followed with a long homer down the right-field line to give the Guardians a 3-0 lead.
The Tigers had won five straight after a 2-9 start. Spencer Turnbull (1-3) allowed three runs on three hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out three.
“He did a really good job, but I know he was frustrated to walk Kwan,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He's a guy who puts the ball in play, so you don't want to walk him. The inning really blew up from there.”
Ramírez, coming off the first four-strikeout game of his career in the second game of Detroit's doubleheader sweep on Tuesday, was given another in the fourth inning when he was called for a pitch-clock violation on a 1-2 count.
“I was still in the box, but the umpire said I had my head down when I was supposed to be ready,” he said. “I didn't make that mistake the next time I was up.”
The Tigers put runners on the corners inn the sixth, but Kerry Carpenter's liner up the middle hit Quantrill in the lower body. He threw Carpenter out from his knees and while his leg initially buckled under when he tried to stand, he eventually walked off the field under his own power.
Spencer Torkelson homered to make it 3-1 in the seventh, and Zach McKinstry's pinch-hit homer pulled Detroit within a run in the eighth.
Carpenter and Akil Baddoo led off the ninth with singles, but Clase retired the next three hitters to end the game.
“We put ourselves into a good position — you can't ask for a better opportunity than we had,” Hinch said. “We just needed one more hit to have another celebration.”
TRAINER'S ROOM
Guardians: Cleveland recalled rookie SS Brayan Rocchio from Triple-A Columbus and optioned SP Hunter Gaddis to the same team.
Tigers: SP Matt Manning (foot) is expected to miss at least six more weeks.
SPEEDY SERIES
The three-game series was played in 26 hours and 23 minutes — a doubleheader on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon's finale — and the average time of game was just 2:12.
UP NEXT
Guardians: Off on Thursday before opening a three-game home series with the Miami Marlins on Friday. Zach Plesac (1-0, 6.92) is scheduled to start for Cleveland in the opener against Braxton Garrett (0-0, 3.38).
Tigers: Off on Thursday before traveling to Baltimore for a weekend series against the Orioles. Michael Lorenzen (0-0, 13.50) will try to improve Detroit's 1-8 record against the AL East, while the Orioles have not named a starter.
