Bad luck gets in the way as Lively runs into rare trouble

TORONTO -- Ben Lively has been the Guardians’ unexpected rotation hero.

After bouncing around the league for the last five seasons, Lively found a home in Cleveland this year. The 32-year-old entered Sunday with a 2.59 ERA and 6-2 record in his 10 outings, quietly becoming the Guardians’ most reliable starter. His outing in a 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre was a rare blip.

Lively allowed four earned runs on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts over four-plus innings, the shortest start of the season for the righty.

“Overall, I thought Ben threw the ball really well,” manager Stephen Vogt said after the game. “They just got his pitch count up, so he wasn't able to go deep.”

Eight days after Lively left a start in Miami with general stiffness, his outing started with almost immediate danger on Sunday. Lively allowed Toronto’s first three batters to reach base, loading the bases with none out. But an infield pop-up, a strikeout and some help from the Guardians' defense helped Lively strand all runners and keep the scoresheet intact.

As shortstop Brayan Rocchio corralled the final out of the frame, Lively met catcher Bo Naylor at the foul line, sharing a brief tap of gloves to celebrate a tight rope successfully walked.

The escape act ended there, though. Ernie Clement took Lively deep for a two-run homer in the second inning and Toronto kept adding hits, warranted or not.

After giving up a leadoff single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the third frame, Lively looked skyward. The ball was a playable grounder that would’ve been converted for an out had it found a glove, but instead it snuck through a hole in the infield. The next batter, Daulton Varsho, sent up a lazy fly ball that barely made it to the outfield. But that knock, too, found grass, bouncing just outside the foul line for another single.

“I was falling behind and I had to throw the ball over the plate,” Lively said. “They were getting a couple cheap hits and one big one.”

Lively’s day ended in the fifth frame, as he marched off the mound with pace after yielding back-to-back walks to open the inning. He had allowed just two runs at the time, but he was charged with two more after Varsho's grand slam broke the game open.

The game may have seemed out of reach after that five-run inning made it 7-2 Blue Jays, but the Guardians managed to claw back thanks to Daniel Schneemann's first career home run and a ninth-inning rally powered by Rocchio's two-run homer. The comeback fell short, though, as that fifth inning proved too much to overcome.

“Our guys have been grinding, fighting, working,” Vogt said. “To be down 7-2 in the fifth, and for us to come back and have the winning run at first base, it just shows who this team is. There's no quit, there's no lack of fight.”

The same goes for their starter.

Entering Sunday, Lively hadn’t allowed more than three runs in an outing this season. His four earned runs against the Blue Jays were as many as he’d yielded in his last three starts combined. Lively underwent tests after experiencing "a little tightness" in Miami, where he tossed five scoreless innings before exiting. He was cleared to take the ball on Sunday and he "felt great" coming out of it, according to Vogt.

“Training staff, medical staff have done a great job,” Vogt said. “And again, it was just out of precaution that we did this. We've got a lot of season left and we wanted to make sure he was good to go.”

For a rotation that has already lost Shane Bieber and Gavin Williams this season due to injuries, Lively has been a life-saver. Sunday’s outing may have been his first sideways start, but bouncing back from the tightness scare in Miami should allow the righty to get back on track and keep elevating Cleveland’s rotation going forward.