June 10, 2026
On Sunday afternoon, Bo Naylor collected his first career four-hit game and the 99th four-hit game by a catcher in franchise history.
Sandy Alomar Jr., Victor Martinez and Steve O’Neill are tied for the team lead with nine four-hit games as a catcher.
Since 1975, to record save a pitcher must do one of the following:
Based on the second parameter, if a pitcher enters the game in the 9th inning, the largest possible lead a team can have leading to a save is five runs (bases loaded).
Last night, Cade Smith became the eighth pitcher in team history to record a save in a 5-run victory (excluding those that did so under the three-inning rule).
Here’s the list (* indicates those who faced only one batter):
Smith is also fourth to do so while facing only one batter and the third to do so after entering the game with two outs (the most low-leverage save situation possible – Lilliquist and Farr are the other two).
Prior to saves becoming an official state, Russ Christopher also recorded a save after entering with two outs, bases loaded with a five-run lead against the Nationals in 1948.
Throughout all of team history the five-run save with one or fewer innings pitched situation has occurred 31 times. However, if you search Baseball-Reference for saves in which a team led by five or more runs you’ll see a much longer list.
From 1969-74, saves could be awarded at the discretion of the official scorer. And saves have (unofficially) been retroactively awarded to pitchers under that definition as well.
Most of those official scorer decisions make no sense at all.
For example, in 1971, Phil Hennigan was awarded a save for pitching the ninth inning of a 10-2 Cleveland victory at Boston. That’s absurd.
So while official records may disagree, I’m going to say this is the 31st time a Cleveland reliefer has recorded a save after entering in the ninth inning with a lead of five or more runs, and the fourth time is happened in the most low-leverage situation possible (entering with two outs).
On Tuesday night, Jose Ramirez hit two home runs against the Marlins, breaking the franchise record for most multi-homer games:
The Guardians nearly ended their 44-year no-hitter drought as Gavin Williams came within two outs of a no-hitter before Juan Soto ended the bid with a home run.
Instead, it’s the seventh time in team history Cleveland has pitched a one-hitter with that one hit being a homer.
Lowrie’s homer off Hagadone also came with one out in the 9th.
Six Guardians pitchers combined for a shutout of the Rockies on Wednesday: Kolby Allard, Matt Festa, Jakob Junis, Nic Enright, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith.
It was the seventh time in franchise history at least six pitchers combined on a shutout and the fifth time in a nine-inning game.
Here’s the list of the others, which includes the MLB-record nine pitchers used in a 10-inning shutout against the Tigers in 2016 which was matched for the first time on Wednesday by the Royals.
In his first save opportunity since Emmanuel Clase‘s betting scandal broke, Cade Smith allowed four runs in the 9th to the Rockies.
It was the first time a Cleveland pitcher blew a save in the 9th inning or later by allowing at least four runs since 2019.
Here’s the full list dating back to 2010:
On Thursday afternoon against the Orioles, Steven Kwan hit two home runs, the 48th multi-homer game by a leadoff hitter in team history and the first since Cesar Hernandez in 2021.
Here’s the team’s all-time leaderboard:
On Sunday against the A’s, Angel Martinez collected three hits and a home run while filling in for Steven Kwan as the leadoff hitter. He’s the third different leadoff hitter to collect three hits including a homer this year, joining Kwan (twice) and Lane Thomas.
It’s the 10th season in team history in which three or more different leadoff hitters have accomplished the feat. The others:
The Guardians let Slade Cecconi attempt a complete game on Friday night against the Athletics, but it went sideways and he allowed three runs before getting pulled in the ninth.
As a result, Cecconi finished with a strange line of six runs allowed in 8.1 innings of work.
This was common through the first 50 or so years of baseball when a complete game was expected no matter what, but even by the 1960s pitchers were rarely sacrificed when it wasn’t going well.
Here are the most recent Cleveland starters to throw allow at least six earned runs in eight or more innings of work:
The Guardians beat the Astros 10-6 on Tuesday thanks to a 10th-inning grand slam by Angel Martinez off of Josh Hader that barely snuck into the Crawford Boxes in Houston.
It was the eighth go-ahead extra-inning grand slam in team history. The others:
*indicates walk-off