Cleveland erupted for five runs in the third inning and rode Joey Cantillo's dominant start to a 7-2 victory over Los Angeles at Progressive Field. The Guardians broke open what had been a quiet game with a decisive outburst that put the contest away early.
Cantillo earned the win with six scoreless innings, allowing five hits while striking out four and walking one. The left-hander carried a 3.38 ERA into the game and improved to 3-1 on the season with his second quality start in three outings.
The Guardians struck first in the second when Brayan Rocchio singled to right, bringing home Kyle Manzardo and Daniel Schneemann for a 2-0 lead. Cleveland then broke the game open in the third with a five-run explosion. David Fry walked to score Chase DeLauter, then Schneemann singled to right to bring home Rhys Hoskins and Manzardo. Travis Bazzana capped the rally with a double to left that scored Fry and Schneemann, extending the lead to 7-0.
Alek Manoah kept pace with Cantillo through five innings, allowing no runs on two hits while walking five and striking out two. His ERA remained at 0.00, but Brent Suter absorbed the loss after allowing two runs in 1.2 innings of relief. Los Angeles managed late runs when Jo Adell singled home Jorge Soler in the eighth and Vaughn Grissom brought home Zach Neto in the ninth.
Cleveland snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 21-21 while maintaining first place in their division. Los Angeles fell to 16-25 despite extending their streak to one game. Hoskins, who walked three times, moved within three runs of 500 career runs scored.