First-place Guardians use a variety of ways to beat first-place Orioles 8-4

CLEVELAND — The Guardians hit three home runs to rout the Orioles in the series opener Thursday night. Friday night at Progressive Field, it was all about small ball and pitching. Limiting one of the majors' top offenses to only a hit over the first six innings, Cleveland clinched at least a split in the four-game series between the American League's top two teams with an 8-4 victory. The Orioles managed only four hits for the game and struck out 12 times. There was plenty of offense, too, for the Guardians, who broke open the game by scoring four times in the sixth inning to go up 8-1. Cleveland, which entered the night with a major league-leading 66-42 record, won its fifth straight game and for the seventh time in the last nine games by playing what players call "Guards Ball." "It's when we're not slugging," said Austin Hedges, who was a catalyst in the Guardians' big sixth inning, drove in two runs and scored once. "One of the things that's really moved the needle for us this year is we've been slugging. We've got guys that are damaging the ball and that's a pretty good recipe for winning games, but I don't care if you're the prime Yankees, you're not just going to go out and hit eight homers every game." Cleveland drew six walks and used a variety of ways to reach the plate. "You gotta find ways to score runs and that starts with good at-bats and walks. We take a lot of pride in our 3-2 counts and we managed to get some walks there, work some pitch counts, and then manufacturing runs. Those are little things that we wear teams down that way and at all times we're still one swing away from a three-run homer, and it's really hard to compete with us when you know that we're capable of that at any moment." Right-hander Carlos Carrasco got it started for the Guardians' pitching staff, walking four over 4⅓ innings, but allowing only a run and a hit while striking out five. Carrasco walked three and gave up a run in the second before locking in and retiring eight of the last nine batters he faced. "A couple walks got him in trouble a little bit, but he wiggled his way through and gave us two times through the order very, very well," manager Stephen Vogt said. "And that's a great lineup over there. They just saw him a couple of weeks ago and that's two times he's really done a nice job against them." "I have to do something different than I did last time," Carrasco said. "Today was more like down and away, kind of a little bit in, too, a lot of sliders, change-ups. I know I got too many pitches. I got four walks but I was able to keep it to just one run." The only semblance of offense from the Orioles came when they scored three times in the seventh off right-hander Scott Barlow, who struck out the first batter of the inning before walking two straight and allowing an RBI single to No. 9 hitter Jackson Holliday. The Guardians answered Baltimore's first run immediately, scoring twice in the bottom of the second to take the lead for good. Josh Naylor dropped in a blooper to left field for a two-run double in the fifth before Cleveland took complete control in the sixth after the first five reached on three singles and two walks. Hedges drove in the first run of the inning with a single for his second RBI, then scored from second on Jose Ramirez's sacrifice fly when Steven Kwan got in a rundown between first and second. "We just kept tacking on. It seemed like we kept the line moving," Vogt said. "Guys weren't trying to do too much, ran the bases really well. It just seems like we're running with our heads up and doing a great job. "You don't have to be fast to be a good baserunner. Hedgie is smart and he's always looking to push the envelope and that's how all of our guys are." The Guardians fell just shy of recording their 12th sellout of the season, drawing 35,137 fans. Lane Thomas walked in his final at-bat in the eighth to extend his MLB-leading streak of reaching base to 28 games. Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.