DETROIT — The Cleveland Guardians have cooled off the Detroit Tigers’ bats and halted their hot streak.
The Guardians beat the Tigers 3-1 on Friday night at Comerica Park to take a second straight game in the four-game weekend series.
The Guardians (28-22) are still chasing the Tigers (33-19) in the AL Central race.
After being shut out in Thursday’s opener, the Tigers finally snapped a 15-inning scoreless streak when Spencer Torkelson launched his 13th home run of the season in the sixth inning. It was the only blemish on an otherwise flawless outing by Guardians right-hander Slade Cecconi, making just his second start with Cleveland.
The Guardians jumped on Tigers rookie Jackson Jobe early. Steven Kwan led off the game with a double, and José Ramírez tripled him home two batters later to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. Ramírez then scored on Carlos Santana’s infield single.
After the shaky first, Jobe put up four straight zeros, escaping self-inflicted trouble in the third when he issued back-to-back walks. Jobe retired the final six batters he faced, but took the first loss of his career. The Tigers had been 8-0 in games he started before Friday’s defeat.
Javier Baez doubled against Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis in the seventh inning but was stranded. Gaddis recorded huge strikeouts against pinch-hitter Riley Greene and Torkelson in the eighth.
Cleveland added an insurance run in the ninth off Tigers reliever Chase Lee. Josh Naylor reached on a triple that was misplayed in right field by Kerry Carpenter and scored on Kwan’s RBI single.
This story will be updated.
BOX SCORE
Up next: The Tigers and Guardians meet again on Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
Right-hander Luis Ortiz (2-5, 4.66 ERA) will start for Cleveland. The Tigers are expected to activate right-hander Casey Mize (6-1, 2.53 ERA) from the injured list to make the start.
Mize missed only two starts while on the IL for a mild hamstring strain. Before the injury, the former No. 1 overall pick was off to the strongest start of his career after winning a rotation spot out of spring training.
