Baseball

Kenta Maeda Gives Up Three Runs in His First 14 Pitches to Spoil a Night with 1,000 Strikeouts; Guardians beat Tigers 9-8

AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Top: Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenta Maeda throws against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, July 9, 2024, in Detroit.
Bottom: Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenta Maeda reacts after allowing a Cleveland Guardians’ Andrés Giménez two-run double in the third inning of a baseball game.

12:09 JST, July 10, 2024

DETROIT (AP) — Jose Ramirez became the second player to get intentionally walked three times and to have three hits in a game since Major League Baseball began tracking free passes in 1955 as the Cleveland Guardians held on to beat the Detroit Tigers 9-8 in 10 innings Tuesday night.

Ramirez joined Paul Goldschmidt, who pulled off the feat for Arizona against Milwaukee in 2015, according to Sportradar. The Home Run Derby participant is also the first to have three intentional walks in a game since San Diego’s Jake Cronenworth did it nearly three years ago, according to Sportradar.

Josh Naylor hit a tiebreaking single in the 10th for his fourth RBI and Brayan Rocchio added a sacrifice fly in the extra inning for the AL Central-leading Guardians, who blew a 6-0 lead early in the game.

Scott Barlow (3-3) gave up a walk in the ninth for the win and Emmanuel Clase closed the game for his 28th save in 31 chances.

Clase gave up Carson Kelly’s sacrifice fly, scoring the automatic runner who had advanced on a groundout, and two straight singles before Justyn-Henry Malloy hit a game-ending fly.

Will Vest (1-3) took the loss after giving up two runs — one earned — on three hits and a walk over 1 1/3 innings.

The Guardians generated plenty of offense a day after getting shut out in the series opener, but their pitching pushed the game to an extra inning.

Angel Martinez and Naylor hit homers in a three-run first. Ramirez had an RBI single with one of his three hits in a three-run third.

AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenta Maeda watches from the dugout against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, July 9, 2024, in Detroit.

Both starting pitchers gave up six runs on seven hits with Cleveland roughing up Kenta Maeda early, and the Tigers getting to Ben Lively late in his outing.

Maeda, who gave up three runs on four hits in his first 14 pitches, lasted just 2 2/3 innings to spoil a night in which he joined Yu Darvish and Hideo Nomo as the three major leaguers born in Japan with 1,000 strikeouts.

Lively started relatively strong, but gave up Colt Keith’s two-run home run in the third and Gio Urshela’s three-run homer in the sixth.

Nick Sandlin entered in relief of Lively and gave up a game-tying homer to Malloy, a rookie, who has cleared the fences five times in 28 games.