Toronto Blue Jays at Cleveland Guardians

· Major League Baseball

Toronto Blue Jays

35-42, 17-23 Away

Final
5 - 6

Cleveland Guardians

49-26, 26-9 Home

Steven Kwan, Josh Naylor hit solo homers, AL Central-leading Guardians beat Blue Jays 6-5

Cleveland won its fifth straight and is a season-high 23 games over .500. The Guardians and rookie manager Stephen Vogt have the best home record in the majors at 26-9, matching their franchise best through 35 games.

“(Kwan) leads us and when he goes, we all go,” Naylor said. “I don’t think we can thank him enough as an offense. He’s an incredible teammate, an incredible human.”

Tim Herrin (3-0) was awarded the win with a scoreless fourth. Emmanuel Clase picked up his AL-best 24th save, retiring George Springer for the final out after putting the potential go-ahead run aboard.

“Our guys stepped up huge again,” Vogt said. “Kwanny is not missing mistakes and with Josh, it’s really impressive what he’s doing.”

Rookie Spencer Horwitz belted two solo homers and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a two-run blast for Toronto, which has lost six in a row for the first time since May 19-24, 2021. The Blue Jays were swept in back-to-back series for the first time since 2019.

“We’ve had our chances, but our starting pitching has had some uncharacteristic outings of late,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “Kind of the story of the season is we’re not hitting as many homers as we can and we’re giving up more than we should.”

Kwan went 2 for 5 and is hitting .390, but is 11 plate appearances shy of qualifying for the league leaderboard. He has a .463 average since May 31.

The Canadian-born Naylor, who equaled his career high with his 20th homer, also singled, doubled and scored twice.

“The numbers obviously speak for themselves,” Kwan said. “It’s kind of cool.”

Kwan and Naylor tacked on solo shots in the fourth, one off Zach Pop and the second off Brendon Little, making it 6-3.

José Ramírez scored two runs in the first three innings for Cleveland. Angel Martínez singled in the second for his first major league hit.

Blue Jays outfielder Steward Berroa made his major league debut in center field in the eighth. He filled the roster spot of Orelvis Martinez, who was suspended 80 games by MLB after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette (right calf strain), who was placed on the 10-day injured list on June 15, is likely to be activated Tuesday.

Guardians: C David Fry (right elbow inflammation) exited in the third. Vogt said he irritated his elbow on a throw to second base.

Blue Jays: RHP Chris Bassitt (6-6, 3.52 ERA) pitches Monday in the first game of a three-game series in Boston. Bassitt is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA over his last six starts.

Guardians: RHP Tanner Bibee (5-2, 3.65 ERA) works Monday in the opener of a three-game set in Baltimore. Bibee struck out a career-high 12 against Seattle on June 19.

How can I watch Toronto Blue Jays vs. Cleveland Guardians?

TV Channel: Blue Jays at Guardians 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Guardians: 61.2%

Blue Jays: 38.8%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Springer grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop, Turner out at second.
	9th Inning	Turner singled to center, Horwitz to second.
	9th Inning	Guerrero Jr. struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Horwitz walked.
	9th Inning	Kiner-Falefa flied out to right.
	9th Inning	Clase relieved Smith

Statistics

TOR		CLE
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
9	Ground Balls	14
8	Strikeouts	6
5	Runs Batted In	5
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
9	Hits	13
0	Stolen Bases	0
7	Walks	3
0	Catcher Interference	0
5	Runs	6
1	Ground Into Double Play	1
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
34	At Bats	37
3	Home Runs	2
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
22	Runners Left On Base	21
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
1	Doubles	2
17	Fly Balls	17
0	Caught Stealing	0
187	Pitches	142
0	Games Started	0
2	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	0
19	Total Bases	21
41	Plate Appearances	40
486.0	Projected Home Runs	324.0
4	Extra Base Hits	4
7.2	Runs Created	7.7
.265	Batting Average	.351
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.559	Slugging Percentage	.568
.500	Secondary Average	.297
.390	On Base Percentage	.400
.949	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.968
0.5	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.8
7.5	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	8.3
40.0	Batter Rating	45.0
11.3	At Bats Per Home Run	18.5
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
4.56	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.55
.294	Isolated Power	.216
0.88	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.50
.171	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.075
.235	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.054
10.0	Runs Produced	11.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	0.8
0.7	Patience Ratio	0.6
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.4
90.5	MLB Rating	97.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0