Slade Cecconi pitches well, but Guardians' skid reaches eight games after 2-1 loss to Tigers

CLEVELAND — Right-hander Slade Cecconi pitched well enough to win the series opener against first-place Detroit at Progressive Field on Friday night. Thanks to another poor effort from the Guardians' offense, he didn't. Cecconi allowed home runs in the third and fourth innings and that was all it took for Cleveland to drop a 2-1 decision and suffer its season-high eighth straight loss. The Guardians fell six games under .500 at 40-46, posting their worst record this late in the season since 2012, with their most recent loss coming in front of a season-high sellout crowd of 38,213 fans. A number of Cleveland players lingered in the dugout following the defeat. "I think you see guys staying around and watching that because it should sting, it should hurt," Cecconi said in a quiet clubhouse after the game. "If you feel that pain and you know how to channel it, it can lead to great things. "I'm really looking forward to at the end of the season when we look back at this eight-game skid and go, 'man, remember how tough that was? Remember how we got through it? Remember how we trusted each other?' It's gonna pay off. We're gonna see ourselves in a great spot at the end of the season. I fully believe that." Jose Ramirez hit the first homer of the game to open the scoring three batters into the bottom of the first. It snapped a career-long 0-for-21 skid for the third baseman, who scored his 942nd run to move into a tie with Charlie Jamieson for fourth-most in club history. Ramirez, who was elected to start his fourth All-Star Game on Wednesday, declined to comment after the game. The Tigers tied it on Wenceel Perez's homer off Cecconi with one out in the third then took the lead with another solo shot off Cecconi from Zach McKinstry to lead off the fourth. Cecconi hadn't lost since June 10 against the Reds, winning two of his last three outings. He has allowed more than three runs only once in 10 starts. "I love where Slade's at," manager Stephen Vogt said. "Even the last couple innings, his stuff started to dip down a little, but then he found another gear, and that's the first time we've really seen him do that. "It just seems like Slade, each and every time out is improving, improving, improving, and he was absolutely outstanding tonight." Cecconi looks like a different pitcher than last year when he struggled in his final season for Arizona before being acquired in an offseason trade for Josh Naylor. "I think the diversity of my arsenal has really helped," Cecconi said. "We didn't use the cutter, but we used five pitches tonight. Didn't have my four-seam (fastball) all that great, but I was able to quick pitch and use it. "Last year, if there was a day where I didn't have my heater, it was gonna be a long frickin' day. Today, we were able to use the sinker. We were able to use multiple off-speed pitches. In those situations when I don't have my best one or two pitches, I can still get guys out." Cleveland, which entered the night with four shutout losses in its last seven games, had five hits within the first two innings, but managed only three after. The Guardians loaded the bases on two walks and a two-out single from Nolan Jones in the eighth, but failed to score when Daniel Schneemann grounded to second on the first pitch he saw from Will Vest. Steven Kwan doubled off Vest with two outs in the ninth but Kyle Manzardo grounded back to the pitcher to end the game. Cleveland was denied a run when Bo Naylor was thrown out at the plate on Angel Martinez's one-out single in the second. The Guardians challenged the call after it appeared Naylor's hand touched home before he was tagged by catcher Dillon Dingler, but it stood. "We never hear anything," Vogt said of the replay. "Judging from the replays that we saw, it looked like his hand got in there before the glove touched him, but the angle they show on the (scoreboard) is probably not conclusive enough. We have so many camera angles. We don't see all the ones they have. More often than not those calls stand and it's really frustrating. "It's a run, right? It's not just a nobody-on, nobody-out, bang-bang play at first. It's a run." Center fielder Lane Thomas, who has already made two trips to the injured list, left the game to start the top of the sixth with a re-occurrence of plantar fasciitis, an ailment that sidelined him from May 27-June 9. It's been a miserable season thus far for last year's postseason hero, who entered the night batting .163 with four homers and 11 RBIs in 38 games. "We think he's good," Vogt said of Thomas. "The plantar fasciitis flared up again and I just didn't like the way he looked running around in the outfield, so rather than take a chance, I got him out of there." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on X @CAwesomeheimer.