Guardians can't close out sweep, fall to Orioles

BALTIMORE — Cedric Mullins hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh inning as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Guardians 4-2 Wednesday night to end a five-game skid and snap Cleveland's seven-game winning streak. Gunnar Henderson hit his 26th home run and Ryan O'Hearn also went deep for the Orioles, who were winless since pounding the Yankees 17-5 on June 20. It was their longest losing streak since May 2022. Mullins connected off Xzavion Curry (0-2) to give Baltimore the lead for the first time. The towering drive soared inside the foul pole and landed on Eutaw Street beyond the right-field scoreboard. After struggling to get his batting average over .200 for much of the season, Mullins is hitting .378 since June 12 and is at .214 for the season. "Nice to see Ced really contributing," Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. "He's gotten a lot better these past couple weeks." O'Hearn made it 4-2 with a solo shot off Curry in the eighth. Grayson Rodriguez (9-3) gave up two runs and five hits over seven innings. He struck out the last four batters he faced. "That was a great start," Hyde said. "Just a couple solo homers there. Besides that, not a lot of traffic. Outstanding job, going seven innings for us." Jhonkensy Noel became the fourth Cleveland player to homer in his first major league at-bat, connecting in the second inning to put the Guardians ahead 1-0. Recalled from Triple-A Columbus earlier in the day, the 22-year-old rookie hit a fastball over the center-field wall after losing hold of his bat on the previous pitch, sending it flying toward third base. "It just makes me so happy to make their major league debut," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "Then he throws the bat 180 feet and hits it 480 feet the next pitch." The last Cleveland player to go deep on his first at-bat in the big leagues was Kevin Kouzmanoff in 2006. Noel, however, went 1-for-4 and struck out to end the game. A homer by Gabriel Arias put the Guardians up 2-1 in the fifth, but Henderson answered in the bottom half. Guardians starter Carlos Carrasco allowed two runs and six hits in five innings. The right-hander was coming off a victory against Toronto after going 0-4 in five starts since May 5. "He held them down," Vogt said. "We were in that game the whole way, and Cookie was a big part of that. He made some great pitches when he needed to." Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth for his 17th save in 21 attempts. Despite the loss, Cleveland took two of three from the defending AL East champions. "It would have been nice to get out of here with three, but anytime we can win a series, especially on the road, we're good with it," Vogt said. SHALT NOT STEAL Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges twice threw out Orioles trying to steal, the second time immediately before Henderson's solo shot. Baltimore came in 59-for-70 on stolen base attempts. TRAINER'S ROOM Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor was held out of the starting lineup for the second straight game. "He's just banged up," Vogt said. "It's just another night off to let the little things heal up."