Straw gets 'monkey off his back' with first HR since 2021

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Guardians’ game against the Rays at Tropicana Field on Friday night contained multiple moments that you don’t see every day at a ballpark. Or even every season.

Outfielder Myles Straw homered for the first time in nearly two years, and Cleveland erased a three-run deficit in the ninth inning with the help of three wild pitches before falling, 9-8.

“It’s why you keep playing,” manager Terry Francona said. “You keep playing because it’s a hard game to win and we’re on the road. But we gave ourselves a chance.”

The Guardians collected 10 hits for the first time in 14 games. But the most unlikely one came off Straw’s bat in the eighth, when he leveled a 95 mph fastball from right-hander Jason Adam into the seats in left, a Statcast-projected 380 feet away.

“To finally get it out of the way feels good,” said Straw, who homered for the first time since a leadoff blast against the Rangers’ Jordan Lyles on Aug. 26, 2021.

Since then, 670 players have had at least one big league home run while Straw sat on zero through 1,040 at-bats. He is one of 103 qualified hitters during that span, and the other 102 all had double-digit dingers.

“I was happy for him because he felt like he got the monkey off his back a little bit,” Francona said.

Straw was welcomed back to the dugout with a big hug from third baseman José Ramírez. There were probably even bigger hugs waiting for him after the game; Straw grew up in Bradenton, Fla. -- about 30 minutes from Tropicana Field -- and had family in the stands to see his rare clout.

“Happy to see my mom for the first time this year,” he said.

That home run cut the Rays’ lead to 8-5, which was how it stood entering the top of the ninth. However, the Guardians took advantage of Pete Fairbanks’ inability to find the strike zone, loading the bases on walks to Ramírez and Kole Calhoun before Ramón Laureano was hit by a pitch. Each of those runners scored on a wild pitch -- two from Fairbanks and one from Robert Stephenson on his first offering after Fairbanks was pulled.

Any hopes of a full comeback were short-lived as Rays shortstop Wander Franco opened the bottom of the ninth with a walk-off homer against Nick Sandlin.

“That was incredible. To score on three wild pitches, those guys were ready at third base,” Straw said. “… That’s just good baserunning.

“Tough loss. It happens. It’s baseball. Come back tomorrow and we’ll try again.”

Before those literally wild final two innings, the story of the game had been right-hander Aaron Civale facing his former club for the first time since the Guardians traded him to Tampa Bay on July 31 for first baseman Kyle Manzardo, MLB’s No. 63 prospect per MLB Pipeline.

The Guardians collected two runs on seven hits and one walk against the starter who spent the first seven years of his professional career with the organization. More damage could have been done, but Cleveland went just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position against its former teammate.

“We hit some balls on the nose that we didn’t have anything to show for. We had some hits. We didn’t have a ton of runs, but we got him out after five,” Francona said.

The Guardians stuck Civale with a no-decision after scoring twice in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead. To that point, starting pitcher Xzavion Curry had turned in a performance that, outside of a three-run third, was just about everything the club could have asked for. He needed just 39 pitches and allowed just one hit in the other four innings, leading with his fastball and slider.

But in the sixth, Curry elevated a changeup to Isaac Paredes that resulted in a go-ahead two-run homer to left. The 25-year-old rookie had thrown only two changeups to right-handed batters all season, and Francona said that offering to the right-handed Paredes “was one of those learning moments.”

That would be the final pitch of the night for Curry, who threw a season-high 70 pitches as the Guardians continued to stretch him out as a starter in the wake of the Civale trade.

“I felt good the whole game. I felt good going out [for the sixth]. It’s just a matter of executing those pitches,” Curry said. “I did a pretty good job of executing pitches throughout the game. I’ve got to continue that in that last inning I go out.”