Guardians: Wild pitch in 10th inning against Astros leads to third straight loss

CLEVELAND — A well-pitched game got away from the Guardians on Saturday primarily because of a not-so-well-pitched ball. The Astros scored two runs with two outs in the 10th inning, the first on a Hunter Gaddis wild pitch, to hand the Guardians a 5-3 loss at Progressive Field. Jake Meyers began the top of the 10th inning as the Astros' automatic runner. He advanced to third on Jeremy Peña's grounder to first and scored when a slider by Gaddis on an 0-2 count was low and outside. Isaac Paredes then drove in Jacob Melton with a single to right field. "The slider he threw before the wild pitch kind of backed up on him," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of Gaddis (0-1). "He just overcooked the next one." The Guardians have lost three straight and eight of their last 12, while the Astros have won five of their last six. Both starting pitchers turned in solid performances with the Guardians' Gavin Williams going six innings with five strikeouts. He allowed three runs, two coming on a home run by Astros catcher Yainer Diaz, a former Guardians minor leaguer. Houston's Hunter Brown, who was trying to become the first pitcher in the majors to reach nine wins this season, allowed one run with nine strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out nine but also walked five and hit a batter. "Gavin pitched outstanding," Vogt said. "He gave up the homer there. He lost his command for two pitches, but he was some kind of good. "It was a fun pitching matchup between him and Hunter Brown. ... To me it was just a really good baseball game. It was just unfortunate the way they scored those two runs in the 10th." Diaz's two-run homer in the sixth, his eight of the year, made it 3-0. "He's good," Williams said. "He foul balls everything. It's hard to get anything by him. The ball he hit was two baseballs in and he hit it over (the wall). It's definitely not where I wanted the pitch, but he got his hands in." The Guardians rallied with a run in the sixth and then tied it when — guess who? — José Ramírez blasted a two-run homer off reliever Shawn Dubin in the seventh inning. It was his 12th home run of the season. Earlier, Ramirez, who had two hits and walked twice, extended his on-base streak to a career-best 33 games. "For our guys to storm right back and tie it up," Vogt said. "It's unbelievable what Jose keeps doing." Steven Kwan added three hits for the Guardians. But other than Kwan and Ramirez, the Guardians got only one other hit, a Gabriel Arias single. Cleveland had runners on first and second with two out in the 10th but Bennett Sousa struck out Jhonkensy Noel to end the game for his first save of the season. "It was a tough loss for sure," Vogt said. KEY STAT Peña extended his hitting streak to 13 games with an RBI infield single in the fifth inning. His career long is 14 games, which he had earlier this season. UP NEXT Cleveland right-hander Tanner Bibee (4-6, 3.89 ERA) is 2-0 in day games this season. Left-hander Brandon Walter (0-0, 0.00), added to the taxi squad Saturday, goes for Houston.