CLEVELAND -- Last fall, the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays played in a 15-inning marathon playoff game that will forever live in infamy at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. But for most of the 2023 season, the Guardians have looked like a different team compared to the one that exchanged scoreless inning after scoreless inning against the Rays. 

That wasn’t the case Friday night at Progressive Field.

After getting six fantastic innings from Cal Quantrill, the "Guardiac Kids" reemerged in the seventh inning, as Gabriel Arias and Bo Naylor delivered back-to-back RBI hits to give the Guardians a 3-2 lead off Rays starter Tyler Glasnow, a lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

• Games remaining: vs. TB (2), vs. MIN (3), @ LAA (3), vs. SFG (3), vs. TEX (3), @ KC (3), vs. BAL (4), vs. CIN (2), @ DET (3)
• Standings update: With the win, the Guardians still trail the Minnesota Twins (who also won) by 5 games in the AL Central race

The key hits continued what’s been a strong week for Naylor, who went 4-for-14 with three home runs over the Guardians’ six-game road trip in Toronto and Minnesota. After putting together what he said he thought were two good at-bats against Glasnow earlier in the game, he smacked Glasnow's 91 mph slider that caught too much of the plate to bring in Arias with the go-ahead run.

“I feel like I had two really good first at-bats and was seeing the ball well,” Naylor said. “I was ready to hit something hard, so I just put a good swing on that pitch.”

The at-bat before, Arias was down 0-2 when he put a short swing on a Glasnow curveball to shoot the game-tying single into left field and score Andrés Giménez. Giménez, who led the inning off with a single, stole second base and reached third base with only one out on a flyout from Will Brennan.

• With newfound playing time, 'consistency' key for Arias

“Baserunning is a huge emphasis on this team because it pays off in the end like we saw tonight,” Naylor said. “[Giménez is] a really smart baserunner and that’s what we’ve seen over the past few years.”

While Quantrill didn’t get the win, the 28-year-old turned in a gem and would have matched Glasnow pitch-for-pitch had it not been for two unconventional hits.

The Rays struck first in the first inning on an RBI double from Randy Arozarena that seemingly stayed in the air forever before hitting the wall in left field right above the glove of Steven Kwan.

The hit had a launch angle of 41 degrees and an expected batting average of .080. An inning later, the Rays tallied a second run off Quantrill on an RBI double from René Pinto that ricocheted off the glove of a diving Kwan.

From there, Quantrill settled in and only allowed one runner to get past second base in what was his best start since he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Twins in May.

"The first couple innings, he scattered some balls but then was much more economical the rest of the way,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “He gave up two and I thought that was phenomenal.”

While this year hasn’t gone the way Quantrill has wanted (he’s had two stints on the injured list this year after never being on the IL in his career), he’s excited to help contribute over the last month of the season.

“Mentally, it’s been tough,” Quantrill said. “I take a lot of pride in taking care of myself, and this year has been hard for me. Hopefully, that was the last of it. I feel pretty good.”

In total, Quantrill allowed two runs on two hits over six innings. He threw all six of his pitches, and generated whiffs on his fastball, cutter, changeup and sinker.

“That’s kind of my identity,” Quantrill said when asked about the pitch selection. “I’m not going to get the most swings and misses in the league, but I’ve worked on a lot of things.

“We know what we’re capable of. We haven’t played our best at times but the race is still a race, and we’re going to take it as long as we can and see if we can’t play baseball a little longer into the season.”