HOUSTON -- With the Guardians winless since June 25, Monday night’s sixth inning was no time for Brayan Rocchio to bunt. And the 24-year-old shortstop came through, delivering a tie-breaking two-run double that led Cleveland to a 7-5 victory over the Astros at Daikin Park, snapping a 10-game losing streak.
Rocchio, whose first two plate appearances produced sacrifice bunts, carried a .165 batting average into his sixth-inning at-bat with runners at first and second and two out. He lined a double over the head of Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes for his first two RBIs in seven games since being recalled from Triple-A Columbus on July 1.
“I couldn’t see the ball really well the first two pitches,” said Rocchio, who had played in 35 games for the Guardians this season before being optioned to Columbus on May 12. “But I tried to do the adjustment during the AB, and I took a good swing for the double.”
The Guardians, who were shut out five times during the 10-game losing streak, had been plagued by an inability to hit with runners in scoring position, going 5-for-52 (.096) during their skid. On Monday, they started 0-for-5 with RISP.
Two breakthroughs came in the fifth inning. After Will Wilson and Bo Naylor started the inning with singles and were sacrificed 90 feet by Rocchio, Steven Kwan plated the game’s first run with a vicious liner that ricocheted off the glove and into the left temple of Astros starter Colton Gordon.
Gordon remained in the game and, one out later, surrendered a three-run homer to José Ramírez that gave Cleveland a 4-0 lead.
But Tanner Bibee, who didn’t allow a hit through four innings, surrendered four hits in the fifth, including a three-run homer to Taylor Trammell and a solo shot by Paredes, as the Astros promptly tied the game.
“Throughout this run -- and not just the 10 games but really the last month, five weeks -- we’ve had these back-and-forth games, back-and-forth games,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “We’ve won some, we’ve lost some, and that’s kind of who we are this year.”
Cue Rocchio, who untied the game in the sixth after Angel Martínez reached on a one-out double off Gordon and Naylor drew a two-out walk against Astros reliever Steven Okert.
“Big at-bat by Rocchi,” Vogt said. “You put a four-spot up; they put one up. We come right back and put up two. That’s who we are, and we just haven’t been doing that as of late, so it felt really good.
“Rocchi had such an unbelievable game -- the two sac bunts to put us in good positions and defensive plays and then the double, obviously. We needed something like that.”
With the way Bibee started the game, Rocchio’s heroics wouldn’t have seemed necessary after the Guardians took their 4-0 lead. Only a third-inning walk kept Bibee from being perfect through four.
“He wasn’t as sharp in that [fifth] inning,” Vogt said. “They made him throw 35 pitches. So any time you’re getting up over 20, it’s tough to really hold your stuff for that long. But Tanner was some kind of special those first four innings. So, unfortunate outing to end the way it did for him.”
The Guardians' bullpen offered Bibee a solid pick-me-up. Matt Festa, Paul Seward, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase combined to allow just one run on one hit -- a sixth-inning homer Victor Caratini hit off Festa -- over the final 4 1/3 innings.
Cleveland, whose losing streak was its longest since an 11-game drought in 2012, avoided matching this year’s worst Major League skids. The Nationals and Athletics claim 11-game losing streaks in 2025.
“Every team goes through stretches,” Vogt said, “but 10 days is a long time. This group never wavered, never stopped working. We know it’s not ‘over over.’ We’ve got to continue to get better. We’ve got to continue to work. But one thing I’m super proud of is throughout those 10 days, this group never once lost its confidence.”