CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians’ offense woke up just in time Tuesday for Toronto’s George Springer to turn out the lights with a late grand slam and hand Cleveland a 10-6 loss in the opener of a three-game series at Progressive Field.

The Blue Jays built a five-run lead through six innings before Lane Thomas delivered a three-run home run off Chad Green in the seventh that cut Toronto’s lead to two. Thomas’ blast to left field with Steven Kwan Johnathan Rodríguez aboard was his second homer of the season after missing 28 games over two stints on the injured list earlier this year.

But Springer put the game away with his eighth career grand slam, taking Hunter Gaddis deep in the eighth inning after a base hit by Ernie Clement, a fielder’s choice grounder by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a walk to Alejandro Kirk loaded the bases.

Toronto lefty Eric Lauer, an Elyria native who starred at Midview High and Kent State, tossed five scoreless innings before Carlos Santana’s solo home run with one out in the sixth chased him from the game. Lauer (4-1) struck out five and scattered five hits with three walks to win for the fourth time in five starts.

Kirk and Jonatan Clase drove two runs apiece, and ex-Guardians infielders Clement and Andrés Giménez made a pair of fine defensive plays to help the Blue Jays to their 42nd win.

Kwan singled in each of his first two at-bats and raised his average to .310, but the Guardians slipped to 8-4 in their last 12 home games against Toronto, including 15-9 overall since the start of the 2022 season.

Toronto ambushed Guardians starter Logan Allen (5-5) for two runs in the first, despite the 26-year-old lefty having entered the game allowing just total eight runs over the first three innings of his previous 13 starts.

Bo Bichette singled and scored on Clement’s double that rattled around in the left field corner. It was Clement’s sixth double in June and his second against Cleveland this season.

After a Guerrero ground out moved Clement to third, Kirk delivered an RBI single to center for a two-run Blue Jays lead. Allen entered the game having held opponents to a .180 average with runners in scoring position over his previous 12 appearances.

Toronto added an unearned run against Allen in the fourth when Springer opened the inning with a base hit and moved to second on a wild pitch. With two out, ex-Guardians outfielder Myles Straw sent a fly ball to right that Rodríguez misplayed for a two-base error.

Rodríguez stumbled as the ball went off the top of his glove and rolled all the way to the warning track. He compounded the mistake by being unable to pick up the ball cleanly for another error that allowed Straw to reach third as Springer scored.

Cleveland’s offense, averaging just 3.1 runs over its previous 20 games, could not come up with a big hit against Lauer despite putting runners on base in each of the first four innings.

Santana walked with one out in the fourth and moved to second when Gabriel Arias reached on a throwing error by Lauer. But Angel Martínez’s bunt down the third base line was just a little too hard, and Clement made a sensational running throw to nip him at first before Rodríguez grounded out to end the threat with two runners in scoring position.

The Guardians went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight.

Lauer’s only mistake was a 2-0 fastball that he left out over the plate in the sixth and Santana blasted into the left field bleachers for his ninth home run and 37th RBI. Santana’s next home run will tie him with Earl Averill (226) for fifth place on Cleveland’s all-time list.

Toronto loaded the bases in the seventh against Kolby Allard and scored two more on an Clase’s ground ball single up the middle. Clase, Guerrero and Springer finished with two hits apiece for the Blue Jays, who out-hit Cleveland 14-7.

Giménez, playing in his first game at Progressive Field after spending four seasons in Cleveland, entered the game hitting just .192, but continued to play elite defense regardless of his batting average. After Kwan and Thomas opened the first inning with back-to-back singles off Lauer, the former Platinum Glove Award winner stifled Cleveland’s momentum when he fielded a slow grounder by José Ramírez, tagged Thomas and threw to first for a double play.

With two out and Martínez aboard in the second, Giménez laid out to stop a Rodríguez grounder that was ticketed for a base hit into center field. But like he had done so many times before in a Cleveland uniform, Giménez snagged the ball at full extension, got to his feet and fired to first, beating Rodríguez by a step to end the inning.

Giménez was originally ruled safe by home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz in the eighth inning when he tried to score from third on Guerrero’s slow grounder to Santana. But the Guardians successfully challenged the call as replay review showed that Austin Hedges applied the tag before Giménez’s hand reached home plate. It was Cleveland’s ninth successful challenge in 16 chances.

Kyle Manzardo added a solo home run for Cleveland in the ninth, his 12th of the season on the first pitch he saw from Toronto reliever Yariel Rodríguez.

Next

The series continues Wednesday with a 6:40 p.m. scheduled first pitch at Progressive Field. Right-hander Gavin Williams (5-3, 3.58) will start for Cleveland, while righty Max Scherzer (0-0, 6.00) takes the mound for the Jays. The game will air on CLEGuardians.TV, WTAM 1100 AM, WMMS 100.7 FM, WARF 1350 AM (Spanish) and the Guardians Radio Network.