Guardians sweep Astros with back-to-back homers from Martínez and Ramírez
Slade Cecconi (4–4) allowed five hits and two runs with a career-best nine strikeouts in 7-plus innings for the win. Paul Sewald pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save. Martínez homered for a second straight at-bat with his shot to the Crawford Boxes with one out in the first inning. His grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning Tuesday night lifted Cleveland to a 10–6 win. Four pitches after Martínez's homer Wednesday, Ramírez also connected off Brandon Walter (1–2) to make it 2–0.
Walter settled in after that, retiring the next 17 batters with seven strikeouts before Bennett Sousa took over to start the seventh. Ramírez and Carlos Santana hit consecutive singles with no outs in the inning before David Fry walked to load the bases. Johnathan Rodríguez then singled to score two and extend the lead to 4–0.
The Astros had managed just four singles when Taylor Trammell walked with no outs in the eighth and scored on a double by Mauricio Dubón that cut the lead to 4–1. There were two outs in the inning when Jose Altuve's RBI double made it 4–2. The AL West-leading Astros went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position to cap this disappointing series, which came after they swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Key moment: Martínez and Ramírez had back-to-back homers in the first.
Key stat: Ramírez, who dropped out of next week's All-Star game Wednesday to rehab a nagging Achilles injury, has four homers and seven RBIs this month.
Up next: LHP Logan Allen (5–7 4.07 ERA) will start for Cleveland in the opener of a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox Thursday night. The Astros are off Thursday and haven't announced their rotation for their weekend series against the Rangers.
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