Deadline additions Adell, Griffin deliver as Guardians snap skid
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DETROIT -- The Guardians’ season has been in danger of slipping away during a rotten stretch that sent them sliding downward in the American League postseason picture. In an extra and ironic wrinkle to its agony, Cleveland has been stacking up losses since it conducted a Trade Deadline buying spree last week.
The Guardians desperately needed a win on Wednesday. They got it by beating the Tigers, 6-4, at Comerica Park, in which Deadline acquisitions Jo Adell and Foster Griffin were at the center of the action.
If the Guardians (59-62) can keep their season from going completely off the rails, this was a night where you could envision the impact Adell and Griffin can provide down the stretch.
Adell belted a go-ahead two-run homer off Tigers starter Framber Valdez in the fifth inning. It helped back Griffin’s solid second start in a Cleveland uniform. Over five innings, the lefty allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits and one walk with three strikeouts.
The Guardians landed Adell, Griffin and Nathaniel Lowe before the 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline last Monday. Nothing has come easy for them since. Cleveland entered Wednesday 1-6 since the Deadline, as part of a larger 7-16 stretch since the All-Star break.
To be sure, the Guardians have been treading water going back farther. They entered Wednesday 24-35 since the calendar flipped to June, a month in which José Ramírez suffered a left hamate fracture. The ballclub did well to hold serve in Ramírez’s absence (15-15), but it has been trudging along for some time now.
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Wednesday was a reprieve.
Adell hit his first home run with the Guardians on Tuesday. In the fifth on Wednesday, he hit a 0-1 cutter from Valdez a Statcast-projected 385 feet to left field for a two-run shot.
Gleyber Torres’ third-inning solo home run was the only earned run Griffin surrendered. He gave up a two-run double to Spencer Torkelson in the first inning, which was elongated after Ramírez committed a fielding error on a Dillon Dingler ground ball. That could have been the second out of the inning.