DETROIT -- Guardians first baseman Nathaniel Lowe saw shortstop Brayan Rocchio range to his right in the ninth inning on Wednesday to pursue a ground ball hit by Kevin McGonigle. As Lowe braced for Rocchio’s throw across the diamond, the first baseman knew he had to at least get some glove on it.
Lowe smoothly dug Rocchio’s toss out of the dirt to secure the final out of closer Cade Smith’s four-out, 38-pitch save. More importantly, it secured a tense finish to the Guardians’ 6-4 win over the Tigers on Wednesday at Comerica Park, which snapped Cleveland’s three-game skid.
“Every game's emotional with us. It really is,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “Rocchio made a heck of a play. Nate with a heck of a dig. Shout out to Cade.”
Lowe snagging the final out was fitting. 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.
Before Lowe’s dig, fellow Deadline acquisitions Jo Adell and Foster Griffin were at the center of Wednesday’s action. 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.
“My record as a Guard is not that great,” Lowe said. “So it's nice to add to the win column and hopefully the boys get rolling.”
The Guardians landed Adell, Griffin and Lowe before the 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline last Monday. Nothing has come easy for them since. Cleveland (59-62) is 2-6 since the Deadline, as part of a larger 8-16 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.
Wednesday was a reprieve. Adell hit his first home run with the Guardians on Tuesday, and he hit an 0-1 changeup from Valdez a Statcast-projected 385 feet to left field for a two-run shot the following night.
“I know the boys have been grinding,” Adell said, “and I just showed up as a piece to help this train move along and to allow us to continue to play the level of baseball that we play in Cleveland. It's really cool to just experience a rally.”
Adell grounded into a 4-6-3 double play in the first inning, which scored Steven Kwan. He took solace in that result because he squared up a low sinker from Valdez (112.7 mph exit velocity). Four innings later, he took Valdez deep on another low offering.
Adell has never played in the postseason. He appreciates what he has stepped into, certainly on a night like Wednesday. The Detroit crowd was lively in the ninth as the Guardians tensely hung on to win.
“Every night, we're doing our best to win a ballgame and trying to find a way to do it,” Adell said. “Every game matters to this point for us, and it's really cool to be a part of that atmosphere. That's something that I've missed, and I'm glad to be a part of.”
Adell’s homer allowed Griffin to pick up the win in his second start with the Guardians. Gleyber Torres’ third-inning solo home run was the only earned run he surrendered. The 31-year-old gave up a two-run double to Spencer Torkelson in the first inning. The inning was elongated after Ramírez committed a fielding error on a Dillon Dingler ground ball, which could have been the second out.
Griffin owned the Torres home run and called it “bad execution.” Catcher Austin Hedges appeared to be setting up on the outer half of the plate, and Griffin’s sweeper was down and inside to the right-handed-hitting Torres. Griffin locked it in from there.
Perhaps Wednesday could be what helps the Guardians do the same. For now, they remain in fourth in the AL Central, four games behind the first-place White Sox, and 1 1/2 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot.
“In a 162-game season, every team is going to go through their ebbs and flows,” Griffin said. “So hopefully tonight's the start of an upward trend for us. I think the vibes are still really good in the clubhouse.”