CLEVELAND (AP) \u2014 Known for doing the little things it takes to win, a style they’ve embraced and branded as \u201cGuards Ball,\u201d the Guardians showed they can also swing big.<\/p>\n
Kyle Manzardo homered twice and Cleveland connected for six home runs \u2014 its most in a home game since 2013 \u2014 while rolling to a 10-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.<\/p>\n
On the warmest day in 2026 at notoriously chilly Progressive Field, the Guardians became the third team to hit six homers in a game this season. They joined Boston and Washington, which also feasted on Cincinnati’s shoddy pitching earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez, Angel Martinez and rookie Chase DeLauter each clubbed a two-run homer and Brayan Rocchio added a solo shot in the power surge. It was Cleveland’s first six-homer game since Aug. 15, 2019, at Yankee Stadium, where the short porch in right field invites players to take bigger hacks.<\/p>\n
The two-time defending AL Central champions have won despite a lack of pop in their lineup in recent years, but their identity could be changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re young and a lot of people don\u2019t get into their power until 25-28, and we\u2019re starting to get into those age ranges for a lot of our guys,\u201d third-year manager Stephen Vogt said. \u201cAs you get older, you learn when to take shots. You learn how to attack certain pitches. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to be a 250-home run team, I doubt it. But it was nice to see the ball fly out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The six homers helped the Guardians become the first team since Toronto in 2018 to score 10 runs without a hit with runners in scoring position. It’s only been done nine times since RISP started being tracked in 1974.<\/p>\n
Who needs a clutch base hit when they all go over the wall?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s the idea,\u201d said a smiling Manzardo, who had his fourth career multi-homer game.<\/p>\n
Manzardo’s two-run homer in the third came shortly after the first baseman’s fielding gaffe when he failed to catch a foul pop hit by Cincinnati’s Matt McLain. Manzardo couldn’t locate the ball, and it didn’t help that he forgot to put on sunglasses he had perched on the brim of his cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a good look,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
Manzardo said the mistake motivated him and he added a solo homer in the fifth to put the Guardians ahead 6-2.<\/p>\n
Manzardo agreed with Vogt’s assessment that the Guardians might be growing into a team that can flex its muscles. Martinez, who hit 11 homers last season and has four in his last five games, already has nine this year to lead Cleveland.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, we\u2019ve got a lot of guys who haven\u2019t necessarily done it for a super long time,” he said. “But a lot have gotten these big league reps and you\u2019re seeing different guys kind of blossom into who they are, which is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of cool, for one of the first times all season, the Guardians didn’t have to also contend with Cleveland’s fickle weather. The game-time temperature of 79 degrees was the warmest this season at Progressive Field, which plays much differently when the wind isn’t blowing in off Lake Erie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball really flies here when it\u2019s warm out,\u201d Manzardo said. “When it\u2019s a little bit cooler, you\u2019re going to have a tricky time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manzardo has played in Cleveland long enough to know that when it gets warmer, bats begin heating up as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou show up knowing you can hit the ball in the air and have that confidence that it\u2019s going to travel,\u201d he said. “I don\u2019t check the weather in Cleveland. Stuff pops up here all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND (AP) \u2014 Known for doing the little things it takes to win, a style they’ve embraced and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[6197,5,6199,535,50,4259,135,88310,865,1389,1401,4,9501,9496,83365,536,860],"class_list":["post-701833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-angel-martinez","tag-baseball","tag-brayan-rocchio","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-cleveland","tag-guardians-6-home-runs-manzardo","tag-jose-ramirez","tag-kyle-manzardo","tag-matt-mclain","tag-mlb","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40806-ap-ohio-sports-only","tag-reds","tag-stephen-vogt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116593160571026393","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}