Quantrill leads Guardians past Rangers, 6-3, in opener
CLEVELAND — The sun shined brightly on Progressive Field in the ninth inning just as the Guardians wrapped up another win.
Maybe this season won’t be so gloomy in Cleveland after all.
Cal Quantrill stayed unbeaten at home, Owen Miller drove in two runs and the Guardians got back to .500 with a 6-3 win over the Texas Rangers in the first game of a doubleheader Tuesday.
Plagued by bad weather that has impacted their schedule all season, the Guardians are finding their groove. Cleveland has won six of seven.
“Huge,” Quantrill said of getting back to .500. “And to do it early in June. We’ve said this over and over again. We will not use youth as an excuse. We won’t use the rain as an excuse. We won’t use the lack of home games or the weird schedule or tough opponents. None of that matters to us.
“We think that we can be a playoff team this year, and this was the first step towards that.”
Quantrill (3-3) delivered his fourth straight quality start, allowing three runs in seven innings. The righthander is 7-0 in 20 career starts at Progressive Field. He’s the only AL pitcher to make at least 15 home starts and not lose over the past two seasons.
Miller hit a two-run single in a four-run third off Jon Gray (1-3), who had never faced Cleveland before.
“I had one ugly inning and it cost us,” Gray said.
Rangers rookie outfielder Steele Walker homered for his first hit in the majors, and Marcus Semien connected for Texas, which closed within 5-3 in the seventh inning on the solo shots.
Eli Morgan worked the eighth for Cleveland and closer Emmanuel Clase pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 10th save.
The opener of the threegame series was rained out Monday, the seventh time the Guardians have been postponed at home this season. This is their fourth doubleheader at home already in 2022.
Despite the scatter-shot schedule, Cleveland has evened its record for the first time since May 14.
“It needs to be a jumping off point, if anything,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “We’ve got a lot of baseball to play. It shows if we play good baseball to play. But it shows if we play good baseball, we can win. Our guys know that.”
Texas left-hander Taylor Hearn will start the second game against Cleveland rookie Kirk McCarty, another lefty.
Miller’s two-run single highlighted Cleveland’s fourrun third, which included back-to-back RBI doubles by Josh Naylor and rookie Oscar Gonzalez.