Jose Ramirez hit two doubles and had two RBIs and Logan Allen pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings as the Cleveland Guardians routed the host Seattle Mariners 8-0 Wednesday afternoon.
Leadoff hitter Steven Kwan, a former Oregon State standout, went 3 for 5 and scored three times for the Guardians, who took two of three games in the series.
Staked to a 3-0 lead before he took the mound, Allen (2-0) kept pounding the strike zone. The left-hander allowed four hits, walked three, struck out six and threw 64 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
Mariners right-hander George Kirby (1-1), who threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings in his first start of the season last week against Boston, gave up multiple runs in three of the first four innings.
Kirby lasted just 3 2/3 innings and was tagged for eight runs on 10 hits. He didn’t walk a batter and fanned two.
The Guardians scored three times in the first inning, added two more in the second and an additional three in the fourth.
In the first, Kwan grounded a single to left, Andres Gimenez was hit by a pitch and Ramirez hit a run-scoring double to right. Gimenez scored on Josh Naylor’s groundout to first and Ramirez came home on Will Brennan’s infield single.
Brayan Rocchio led off the second with a line-drive single off the glove of Mariners second baseman Jorge Polanco, and Kwan singled to right.
Gimenez’s double to right scored Rocchio, and Kwan came home on Naylor’s one-out sacrifice fly to left.
Kirby retired the side in order in the third but couldn’t make it through the fourth. With one out, Kwan lined a single to right and Gimenez reached when Polanco and shortstop J.P. Crawford collided on a ball hit up the middle, allowing Kwan to reach third.
Ramirez doubled to right to score one run and Naylor brought home another with a sacrifice fly. Brennan’s line-drive single to right made it 8-0 and ended Kirby’s afternoon.
-Field Level Media