The Cleveland Guardians and Washington Nationals faced off for Game 2 of the doubleheader and the series. After an deflating result in Game 1 the Guardians looked to bounce back and secure a win.
Ben Lively had the start for Cleveland. In the top of the first, he threw 18 pitches, giving up a lead off walk and a single. However, James Wood tried to stretch his single into a double when Angel Martínez missed the cutoff man on his throw in from center. Austin Hedges backed up the throw in and smartly threw the ball to second to throw out Wood for the first out.
Lively made quick work in the bottom of the second and quickly recorded the first two outs of the third inning. After allowing another walk to CJ Abrams, Hedgey once again made a fantastic play. Abrams made a break for second but Hedgey easily threw out the runner, without leaving his knees, to retire the side.
Austin Hedges made this caught stealing look way easier than it was. Fired a one-hop strike with his knees both on the dirt. pic.twitter.com/IjZOUNiBqq
— Tim Stebbins (@tim_stebbins) May 6, 2025
In the bottom of the fifth, with the score still 0-0, the Guardians defense stepped up and made some fantastic plays. With one out, Dylan Crews hit a line out to Steven Kwan. Kwan flashed his three gold gloves and snagged the ball after running in hard and finishing the catch with a somersault for the second out.
The final out was recorded when José Tena grounded to the in field. Lively came up just short of snagging the ball to throw to first, but an alert back up from Gabriel Arias and a great snag from Carlos Santana got the runner out to retire the side.
Guards offense took a long while to kick in. It took until the top of the sixth for the Guardians to have more than one runner on base. Steven Kwan got on with a one out single and José Ramírez drew a two out walk. Carlos Santana, who is showing signs of heating up, launched his fourth homer of the season. A towering 368ft three run home run to the bullpen.
Stephen Vogt was really aggressive with the hook for Ben Lively. In the bottom of the sixth, Lively gave up a lead off homer, but got an out when Jacob Young popped out to third. Vogt made the quick call to the bullpen with the top of the order coming back up. Lively’s night ended at 5.1 innings pitched. He allowed one earned run on two hits, walking two batters and striking out three. Lively was only at 63 pitches thrown when Vogt turned things over to Tim Herrin. Herrin retired the side only allowing a walk to CJ Abrams.
The Guards kicked into GuardsBall™ gear in the top of the seventh. Nolan Jones drew a lead off walk and Daniel Schneemann, pinch hitting for Will Wilson, hit a single to center. Brayan Rocchio attempted to bunt over the runners again, but a wild pitch allowed them to advance without any risk of a strike out bunting. Rocchio hit into a RBI fielder’s choice that resulted in no outs. With Schneemann on third and Rocchio on second (stolen base), Hedgey hit into the first out of the inning, a ground out to third. After the Nats made another pitching change, another wild pitch allowed both runners to advance – scoring Schneemann. Steven Kwan tacked on another run with a RBI double to right.
Jakob Junis replaced Tim Herrin for the bottom of the seventh. Outside of a one out single, Junis got out of the inning unscathed.
Santana and Schneemann had some sort of adventure in the top of the eighth. Carlos Santana drew a lead off walk then advanced to second on a wild pitch. With two outs, another wild pitch allowed Santana to score from third. Daniel Schneemann took pitch five 385ft for a solo homer and the eighth run of game for the Guards.
Jakob Junis worked a solid 1-2-3 eighth inning to hand things back over to the Guards offense.
Yup. That’s a Hedgey homer.
Austin Hedges hit a lead off homer just over the left field wall. It was almost robbed by the Washington left fielder, but the 354ft fly ball left the yard and put the Guardians up 9-1.
With the lead, Vogt turned to the 27th man of the double header, Zak Kent, to close out the game. Kent struck out the first batter and gave up a single to next. Josh Bell grounded into a double play to close the book on this double header.
Players to Highlight:
Steven Kwan went 2-for-4 with a walk, run, and an RBI.
José Ramírez went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run.
Carlos Santana went 1-for-4 with two runs, a walk, and three RBIs.
Daniel Schneemann (PH) 2-for-2 as a pinch hitter with two runs and an RBI.
CLE 9 – WSH 1
The Guardians and Nationals will face off for the final game of the series. A win for the Guardians will secure another series and the road trip. First pitch is at 12:05 PM EDT with Logan T. Allen getting the start for the Guards.