Guardians fall in finale after late-inning struggles

CLEVELAND -- For the first two games of the Guardians' three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland seemed to find whatever fairy dust it had during its improbable run to the AL Central title last season.

That magic flipped dugouts Sunday, as Taylor Walls picked up a go-ahead hit off Trevor Stephan in the eighth inning in Cleveland's eventual 6-2 loss, preventing the Guardians from gaining an all-important game in the American League Central.

• Games remaining: vs. MIN (3), at LAA (3), vs. SFG (3), vs. TEX (3), at KC (3), vs. BAL (4), vs. CIN (2), at DET (3)
• Standings update: With the loss, the Guardians trail the Minnesota Twins by 5 games in the race for the AL Central title.

Stephan, who came into the outing having not allowed a run since Aug. 12, opened the eighth inning with strikeouts of Randy Arozarena and Josh Lowe before getting himself locked into a battle with Jose Siri. In the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Stephan threw a 3-2 splitter that Siri laid off to work a walk.

“Siri put up a good at-bat,” Stephan said. “I wish I'd probably challenged him sooner in that at-bat. Splitter was working early in the inning and then I just tried to stick with it.”

Siri swiped second on the ensuing pitch to Walls, who drove him on the next pitch, which was a middle-middle fastball. Ramón Laureano uncorked a 94.7 mph throw from right to try to nab Siri at the plate, but his slide was just out of the reach of Bo Naylor’s tag.

“They did a good job manufacturing a run,” Stephan said.

Tampa Bay added on in the ninth inning off reliever Eli Morgan, who was in trouble right out of the gate after allowing back-to-back singles to Christian Bethancourt and Yandy Díaz. They both came around to score on defensive miscues by the Guardians, as Bethancourt scored on an overthrow from Morgan while Díaz scored when José Tena missed second base on a double play attempt.

While Tena missed the bag, Issac Paredes, who reached on Morgan’s overthrow, never touched second base on the play, because he peeled off when the umpire made the out signal, which led to some confusion when Paredes was ruled safe after a review.

“They said that he didn’t go to second base because of umpire error, which trumps everything else,” Francona said.

While the Guardians only scored two runs on Sunday, the lineup got a big bat back with the return of first baseman Josh Naylor, who was playing in his first game in a month after going on the shelf with a right oblique strain.

Naylor, who was hitting .306 with 79 RBIs prior to his injury, went 1-for-4, with the hit coming in the form of a game-tying single in the fifth inning off Rays starter Taj Bradley.

“We're going to have to keep an eye on him because it's nice to have him back,” Francona said. “His base hit drove in a big run, and as long as he stays healthy, I don’t see that not continuing.”

Xzavion Curry turned in a solid start on the mound, as he allowed two runs (one earned) over 5 1/3 innings while striking out six, tying his season high. After only going two innings in his last two starts (one of which was due to weather), he was able to keep the Guardians in the game against a tough Rays lineup.

“I wanted to make sure that I bounced back correctly and put the team in a good spot to be able to win the ballgame,” Curry said. “I was pitching with a little chip on my shoulder.”

With the loss, the Guardians stayed at five games behind the Twins, who lost 6-5 to the Rangers on an Adolis García walk-off home run. Outside of Cleveland’s two wins over Minnesota last week, the Guardians haven’t won a game on a day the Twins have lost since Aug. 22.

The Guardians welcome Minnesota to Cleveland for a huge three-game series that starts on Monday that will likely determine what the rest of their season will look like. With a sweep, they’ll cut the Twins lead to just two games, while a sweep the other way will likely knock the Guardians out of the postseason picture.

“Honestly, we just put up a good series,” Stephan said. “I feel like we're feeling good as a team and we know the situation. It's an uphill battle, but if we take care of business in the next series then we’ll be all right."

Lucas Giolito, who was claimed off waivers on Aug. 31 from the Angels, will make his Guardians debut on Monday against Pablo López.

“We're a few games out,” Giolito said. “So [it's] a big series coming up.”