SEATTLE — The Guardians entered their weekend series against the Mariners looking to remain in contention in the American League Central Division, but instead limped out of town Sunday after being swept by a Seattle squad that had lost five of its previous six games.
The Mariners scored five runs in the second inning against Cleveland starter Luis Ortiz, highlighted by J.P. Crawford’s fifth career grand slam, and handed the lifeless Guardians a 6-0 loss at T-Mobile Park.
It marked Cleveland’s sixth shutout loss of the season and the first Mariners sweep of the Guardians since Sept. 2-4 of 2022. Cleveland had not been swept in Seattle since 2012.
Crawford, batting .434 in his last 14 games, has seven extra-base hits and 12 walks compared to just five strikeouts in that span. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said the nine-year veteran is at his best when he makes pitchers come into the strike zone.
“We saw him shoot a lot of hits to the left side, work some walks, and obviously the one mistake that he saw this weekend, he hit a grand slam,” Vogt said. “When he’s hot, there are not too many people hotter.”
Mariners right-hander Emerson Hancock picked up his third win by shutting down Cleveland’s offense by living on the edges of the plate and mixing in enough changeups and the occasional slider to keep Guardians hitters honest. Hancock limited Cleveland to just two hits over seven innings while walking one and striking out four.
Hancock (3-2) allowed a two-out single to Lane Thomas in the second inning and a leadoff base hit to Angel Martínez in the third, but went on to retire the final 14 batters he faced.
Ortiz walked Randy Arozarena to open the second before Rowdy Tellez doubled and Dominic Canzone drew a walk to load the bases. Miles Mastrobuoni’s RBI single to right scored Arozarena to give Seattle a 1-0 lead and bring Crawford to the plate.
Crawford entered the game batting .261 with a home run and 13 RBI in 28 career games against Cleveland, but was 6 for 8 with a double and an RBI in the first two games of the series. He fell behind Ortiz early in the count, before picking out a slider low and over the middle of the plate that he launched 377 feet into the right field seats for his sixth home run.
Ortiz (3-8) settled in after that, working through the sixth and finishing with five strikeouts, five walks and five hits allowed. He walked Arozarena with one out in the fifth, and allowed an RBI single to Mitch Garver after Arozarena picked up his second stolen base of the day.
Ortiz tied a career high with 104 pitches. His five walks match a career high and tie Yusei Kikuchi of the Angels for the most five-walk outings in the majors. Vogt said Ortiz struggled with his command from the outset.
“The free bases got to him,” Vogt said. “When you give a team like that free base runners, there’s not a whole lot of room for error.”
All-Star left fielder Steven Kwan left the game in the sixth inning. Afterward, Vogt said that Kwan got jammed on a pitch in the third inning and that he took him out despite Kwan’s own protest.
“He wasn’t very happy with me,” Vogt said. “He wanted to stay in, but he’s just battling through the wrist thing.”
Kwan was replaced by Johnathan Rodríguez. Kwan exited Cleveland’s game against the Dodgers on May 28 after experiencing soreness in his right wrist, but was back in the lineup against the Angels after an off day and did not miss a start.
“That’s part of the baseball season,” Kwan said afterward. “Everybody’s dealing with old bumps and bruises. It’s just that part of the year where we’re all feeling our stuff. That’s what we signed up for.”
The only drama of the afternoon for Cleveland was seeing whether or not José Ramírez could extend his career-high on-base streak. With Ramírez hitless in three trips to the plate and two out in the ninth, Kyle Manzardo bounced a single up the middle against Seattle reliever Eduard Bazardo. But Ramírez grounded out to second to end the game, halting his streak two games short of tying Kyle Schwarber for the longest run in the majors this season.
Kwan said Ramírez’s streak is a real testament to his talent.
“It just shows really how good he is,” Kwan said. “Everybody wants to be the one to end (the streak) and he still worked his way on. It was just cool seeing him do that.”
Former Mariner Carlos Santana went hitless in three trips to the plate, but appeared in his 1,400th career game with Cleveland, making him the 13th player in franchise to reach that many games. Santana has appeared in 2,146 games in 16 seasons, the third most among active players behind Robinson Cano and Andrew McCutchen.
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