Guardians complete sweep of Astros after entering series on 10-game skid

HOUSTON — Jose Ramírez homered for a third straight game, Angel Martínez also went deep and the Cleveland Guardians got a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep. It's the first time the Guardians, who entered the series on a 10-game skid, have won three in a row since a four-game winning streak from May 21-24. Slade Cecconi (4-4) allowed five hits and two runs with a career-best nine strikeouts in 7-plus innings for the win. Paul Sewald pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save. "With where our bullpen is at, we needed an outing like this, for him to step up," manager Stephen Vogt said. "He got us into the eighth, where we only needed to use two guys when we really only had three or four (available). Huge night by Slade, efficient strikes, quick outs. The curveball was as sharp as we've seen it, throwing strikes with the breaking ball, the fastball, everything." After a down year in Arizona last season, Cecconi has flourished since joining the Guardians. "I feel better mentally. I feel better physically. I feel like I have a better arsenal. I feel like I'm more focused when I'm out there, more present in the moment rather than projecting the future and thinking about things that aren't in my control," he said. "It's very impressive the focus that he has demonstrated so far throughout every outing," Ramirez said of Cecconi through an interpreter. "Congratulations (to him). It was a hell of an outing." Martínez homered for a second straight at-bat with his shot to the Crawford Boxes with one out in the first inning. His grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning Tuesday night lifted Cleveland to a 10-6 win. Four pitches after Martinez's homer Wednesday, Ramírez also connected off Brandon Walter (1-2) to make it 2-0. Walter settled in after that, retiring the next 17 batters, with seven strikeouts before Bennett Sousa took over to start the seventh. Ramírez and Carlos Santana hit consecutive singles with no outs in the inning before David Fry walked to load the bases. Johnathan Rodríguez then singled to score two and extend the lead to 4-0. The Astros had managed just four singles when Taylor Trammell walked with no outs in the eighth and scored on a double by Mauricio Dubón that cut the lead to 4-1. There were two outs in the inning when Jose Altuve's RBI double made it 4-2. The AL West-leading Astros went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position to cap this disappointing series which came after they swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend. Martínez and Ramírez had back-to-back homers in the first. Ramírez, who dropped out of next week's All-Star game Wednesday to rehab a nagging Achilles injury, has four homers and seven RBIs this month. "I'm thinking about the team and my health," Ramirez said of his decision to skip the All-Star Game. "I know if I continue to keep pushing this way, I might hurt something, and my health is going to help the team in the long run." Up next LHP Logan Allen (5-7, 4.07 ERA) will start for Cleveland in the opener of a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox Thursday night. The Astros are off Thursday and haven't announced their rotation for their weekend series against the Rangers.