Guardians unable to overcome solo homers from 'ultimate lineup'

CLEVELAND -- With the Guardians sitting in a nearly two-hour rain delay on Sunday, manager Terry Francona decided to use some of the down time to start scouting out the Braves’ lineup ahead of the team’s three-game series. Not long after, the reigning American League Manager of the Year began to feel sick to his stomach.

“I started getting nauseous,” Francona joked prior to Monday’s series opener. “My goodness. Not even the guys on their lineup but the guys on their bench. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen numbers like that.”

Those numbers came to life on Monday night at Progressive Field, as the Braves slugged three home runs in a 4-2 win in the series-opener of a crucial series between the two clubs.

“Unfortunately, the hits left the ballpark,” Francona said after the game. “This is probably the ultimate lineup. … They’re pretty dangerous.”

While all three of the home runs came against starter Gavin Williams, the rookie starter still held his own in his 6 1/3 innings on the mound against a roster unlike any in baseball.

And Francona was right, the Braves have a roster unlike any in baseball. Six of the batters Williams faced will head to Seattle for the All-Star Game next week -- three of whom are starters.

“It’s a pretty good lineup,” Williams said. “I definitely didn’t have my best stuff tonight. There were some pitches I left over the middle and it showed.”

Ironically, the two batters who gave Williams the most trouble were two of the few non-All-Stars in the lineup. No. 9 hitter Michael Harris II cranked two solo shots off Williams (the second multi-homer game of his career), while Marcell Ozuna had a solo shot in the 4th inning.

Harris’ first home run was a 424-foot blast off a changeup that Williams left over the middle of the plate, while his second was an opposite-field shot on a high fastball that was out of the strike zone.

“It was up but it was still in the middle of the plate. I still need to make a better pitch there,” Williams said.

Ozuna’s home run was also an opposite-field shot that he poked over the right-field fence.

The Guardians didn’t get much of a reprieve at the plate either, as they had to face off against Bryce Elder, another All-Star who entered play on Monday with the second-best ERA in the National League at 2.44. After Elder cruised through the first six innings, the Guardians’ offense finally got to him in the sixth thanks to the bottom of their order.

After Myles Straw got on-base with a one-out single and Steven Kwan hit a two-out double, Amed Rosario picked up a big two-out, two-run single -- his third straight game with a two-run single.

"He knows how to pitch,” Francona said of Elder. “In this era of guys throwing 99 [mph], he throws four pitches and shoot I think it was the fourth inning when he finally got over 50% strikes, but he still kept us off the scoreboard just because he changed speeds"

In total, Straw, Kwan and Rosario accounted for seven of the Guardians’ eight hits, with Kwan leading the way with three the day after he had a day off due to a sore shoulder.

“I think that was good for him, and that was the idea,” Francona said regarding Kwan.

After struggling through June, both Straw and Rosario have turned it around as of late, with Rosario hitting .354 over his last 15 games, while Straw is batting .321 over his last seven games.

Those offensive bright sports were darkened a little bit by a new injury, however, as Josh Naylor left the game in the top of the seventh inning with right wrist soreness. Naylor was in visible pain after a swing in the bottom of the sixth, but he stayed in to finish his at-bat before being lifted for Gabriel Arias during the half-inning break.

After the game, Francona said the injury is related to the wrist injury he sustained against the Orioles at the end of May. Naylor will undergo imaging Tuesday for the injury.

“He had been dealing with that tendinitis after that slide in Baltimore but I thought he had kind of rid himself of that,” Francona said. “You could tell he was hurting.”