Sellout crowd has plenty to root for in Guardians' 5-4 victory over Twins

CLEVELAND — The Guardians' sixth sellout crowd of the season had plenty to cheer Saturday afternoon at Progressive Field. Jose Ramirez and Daniel Schneemann hit home runs, Bo Naylor had a game-winning hit, top prospect C.J. Kayfus made his major league debut and the bullpen offered up another suffocating performance, as Cleveland beat Minnesota 5-4. The Guardians improved to an American League-best 16-6 over their last 22 games. Cleveland's relief corps put the wraps on a fourth straight victory by retiring 13 of the final 14 batters while striking out 10 of them. "Super impressive, 10 punch outs in 4 1/3 (innings), efficient," manager Stephen Vogt said. "Just didn't even let them breathe and get anything going. It was outstanding, from (Matt) Festa coming in, stopping the fire (in the fifth) and then getting the first two guys in the sixth. "You can't say enough about the job this bullpen's done and (Hunter Gaddis) coming in, locking it down for his first (career) save. It was a really fun day, as the bullpen continues to just be tremendous." Schneemann came up a triple shy of the cycle, hitting a leadoff homer in the third off Twins starter Bailey Ober to put Cleveland in front 2-0. It was his third three-hit game of the season and fourth of his career. "It crossed my mind a little bit, but I don't even think I have a triple this year, so I knew the chances were low," Schneeman said of his bid for the cycle. Ramirez did what Ramirez does, blasting a two-run homer with two outs in the fifth to tie the game at 4. "He just seems to get the big hit all the time," Vogt said. "He knows when we need homers and singles and there you go. Never gets old getting to watch him play. Don't take it for granted one single day that we get to watch this guy play baseball." It's been a rough season at the plate for Naylor, but he came through in the eighth with a go-ahead, one-out double into the right-field corner on the first pitch he saw from Pierson Ohl. Naylor is batting only .180 but has hits in 10 of his last 19 games and six of nine. "All the credit goes to him," Vogt said. "We put a lot of pressure on him to be ready to call the game, lead the pitching staff, and by the way, go get some hits. What he's really learning how to do in this last stretch is how to separate, turn the defensive mind off and then just go hit. A lot of it is his mindset. He's just going up there and competing." About the only thing that didn't go well for the Guardians was starter Tanner Bibee's outing. The right-hander didn't make it out of the fifth, serving up his 21st homer in 22 starts — on a game-tying, two-run shot from Matt Wallner — after walking the leadoff batter in the fourth. Minnesota tied it again on a two-out double from Royce Lewis to chase Bibee. "He's in a little bit of a pattern right now, getting ahead 0-2 and not being able to finish guys and he knows it, he's working on it," Vogt said. "I think (he's) just trying to be perfect a little bit with two strikes, which leads to some mistakes, leads to letting them back into counts and kind of prolonging that pitch count deeper than it needs to be." Kayfus didn't get his first hit but did deliver his first RBI, grounding out to short on a two-strike pitch to score Cleveland's first run in the second. The crowd was roaring when Kayfus came to the plate with the bases loaded in the eighth and there was an audible groan when he struck out swinging. "When I first ran out there to stretch, I did a 360 and took it all in. It was honestly unbelievable," Kayfus said of his debut. And the majority of the 35,116 fans in attendance were on their feet again in the ninth with right-hander Cade Smith unavailable and righty Hunter Gaddis on the mound trying to close it out. Gaddis allowed a leadoff double on a drive from Edouard Julien, but struck out the next three for the milestone moment. "I took the ball from Bo because he was kind of holding onto it for a second," Gaddis said. "Then he asked me, he was like, 'Wait, is that your first (save)?' I was like, 'Yeah, give me the ball.'" Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.