Guardians fail to complete sweep of Orioles, but finish homestand with five wins in seven games

CLEVELAND — It took a sweltering Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field to cool off the red-hot Guardians. With the temperature just under 90 degrees at first pitch, Cleveland was unable to complete a four-game sweep of Baltimore, dropping a 4-3 decision for only its third loss in 14 games. Gunnar Henderson's two-out single off reliever Erik Sabrowski in the seventh sent the Orioles to just their second win in nine games and ended the Guardians' win streak at four. They are 5-2 since the All-Star break. "We love the way we're playing right now," said manager Stephen Vogt, whose team has climbed back to .500 and into wild card contention. "This was a great home stand. I couldn't be more proud of our guys coming out of the break and playing the way they did this week." The game-winning run was charged to Cleveland starter Logan Allen, who allowed four runs over 6 1/3 innings. Allen gave up three runs in the opening inning, including a two-run homer to Ramon Laureano, who had a big series against his former team. Laureano, who played parts of 2023-24 in Cleveland, had hits in all four games, going deep in three of them while driving in seven runs. Allen locked in from there, shutting out the Orioles on two hits over the next five innings and retiring 16 of 19 hitters over the stretch. "It seemed like they were trying to back off the off-speed (stuff), so we got a little bit more aggressive with the four-seam (fastball) after that," said Allen, who allowed more than three runs for the first time in eight starts. "Just kind of reading swings within the game and got on the same page (with catcher Austin Hedges) after that first inning and really dialed it in." The Guardians have been getting length from their rotation to keep the bullpen fresh, something that wasn't happening on a consistent basis in the first half. "I think if you look back when we were struggling, there was a lot of walks," Vogt said. "We've really limited the free bases and cleaned up the defense and that's really why we're playing better. Obviously the offense has come alive as well, but with our rotation we just feel really good about them attacking the zone with their stuff right now." The other run in the first came back to haunt Cleveland after center fielder Angel Martinez misplayed a ball from Ramon Urias that went over his head for an RBI double. "Angel has been playing an amazing center field and that was definitely a one-off and that happens," Vogt said. The Guardians didn't score over the first two innings against veteran right-hander Charlie Morton, but Steven Kwan started the third with his first homer since June 13 — a liner over the wall in right. Martinez and Jose Ramirez followed with singles and Nolan Jones made it 3-2 on a sacrifice fly to the wall in right. Kwan hit another leadoff homer off Morton to tie the game in the fifth, recording the first multi-homer game of his career. Kwan, who has dealt with a wrist injury since late May, was out of the lineup for the first three games of the second half after playing in the All-Star Game. Vogt said the rest was beneficial. "We haven't seen him get through balls like that for the last month and a half," Vogt said. "He was really battling the wrist. It was really good to get him the time (off) and a much-needed recovery for him. Glad to have him back clicking at the top of the order." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.