Cleveland Guardians Erupt for Seven Homers and Get José Ramírez Back in a Smoke-Delayed, Split-Decision Week

Nobody would have scripted the Cleveland Guardians' first week out of the All-Star break quite like this. Wildfire smoke wiped out Friday's scheduled opener against Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes rolled into town Sunday and did Paul Skenes things. In between and after, Cleveland hit seven home runs in a single game for the first time at Progressive Field in 13 years, then welcomed José Ramírez back from hand surgery. Add it all up and the Guardians went 3-3 across six games in five days — a week that felt simultaneously frustrating and genuinely encouraging. At 54-49, they sit one game behind the first-place White Sox in an AL Central race that increasingly looks like it will go the full 162.

Smoke, a Split, and a Skenes Problem

The week started with a game that never happened. Friday's series opener against the Pirates was postponed when wildfire smoke pushed Cleveland's air quality index to 203 — firmly in the “very unhealthy” range — by late afternoon. Manager Stephen Vogt tried to find the silver lining in the extended break, saying, “To get 48 hours to really just be with your family, be with loved ones, do something other than go to the field, it is super powerful.”

The makeup came as a split doubleheader Saturday, and the opener went badly. Jared Jones carved up the Cleveland lineup for five innings — three hits, one run, nine strikeouts — while Gavin Williams gave up three homers in a 7-1 loss, just the second time in his career he has allowed three in a game. Jacob Gonzalez, Esmerlyn Valdez and Nick Gonzales all went deep, and Travis Bazzana's RBI triple accounted for Cleveland's only run. Williams fell to 10-5.

The nightcap was the answer you wanted to see. With Logan Allen called up to make the spot start, the Guardians hung around and then punished Pittsburgh's bullpen late in a 5-3 win to salvage the split. Sunday brought no such comfort: Skenes threw seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts in another 7-1 Pirates win, outdueling Joey Cantillo. Cleveland's lone run came on a bases-loaded bunt single and an error, and an Austin Hedges throwing error on a pickoff attempt handed Pittsburgh an extra run. Losing a home series to a National League club is not how you want to reopen the season, but losing to Skenes at midseason form is hardly a scandal.

Seven Homers and a Franchise First Against the Twins

Then Monday happened, and it was one of the strangest, loudest offensive nights in recent franchise memory. The Guardians demolished Minnesota 13-4 behind seven home runs, tying the Progressive Field record last matched on April 30, 2013. Six of those homers came within the first four innings — something no Cleveland team had ever done. Petey Halpin hit two, including the first of his career. Rhys Hoskins hit two more, making Halpin and Hoskins the first Cleveland teammates with multi-homer games in the same contest since José Ramírez and Carlos Santana in August 2019. Brayan Rocchio, Bazzana and Patrick Bailey also connected, Chase DeLauter went 4-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs, and Twins starter Joe Ryan set an unwanted Minnesota record for home runs allowed in a game.

Tuesday's 5-2 win was the stylistic opposite and arguably more reassuring. Rookie Parker Messick struck out six and allowed two runs on four hits, Steven Kwan tied the game with an RBI double, Rocchio singled home the lead, and Hedges and Halpin added sacrifice flies before Bazzana singled in DeLauter for insurance. Cade Smith closed it out for the save. Wednesday's finale got away, though: Minnesota pounded Slade Cecconi and the Guardians' defense in a 10-6 loss, with Trevor Larnach homering to lead off the game and Brooks Lee launching a three-run shot in the fourth. Cleveland committed three errors and gave away four unearned runs — the kind of sloppiness this team, built on run prevention, almost never shows.

The Kids Are Carrying the Cleveland Guardians

The most interesting thread of the week is who did the damage. Halpin homered twice and drove in runs in back-to-back wins. DeLauter had the four-hit night. Bazzana chipped in a triple, a homer and a go-ahead-padding single across three different games. Rocchio homered and delivered the decisive knock Tuesday. Kwan quietly kept stacking multi-hit games, including two hits against Skenes on Sunday when nobody else was doing much of anything. On the mound, Messick keeps looking like a legitimate mid-rotation piece, and Smith remains the trusted arm at the end.

That youth movement matters because the underlying offense has been genuinely bad. As MLB Trade Rumors laid out in its deadline outlook, Cleveland reached the break ranked second-to-last in baseball in runs scored with a .229 team average and a .369 slugging percentage. The young hitters — plus one very famous returning veteran — are the internal fix. The seven-homer eruption was an outlier, obviously, but the at-bats from Halpin, DeLauter and Bazzana were not.

Where the Guardians Stand in the AL Central

The 3-3 week left Cleveland at 54-49, one game behind the 54-47 White Sox, with Minnesota lingering roughly five back. It is a strange race: MLB Trade Rumors noted that even when the two teams were dead even at the break, Chicago effectively held the top spot via the season-series tiebreaker, so the Guardians cannot simply match the Sox down the stretch — at some point they have to beat them head-to-head. The consolation is that Cleveland's playoff odds sat above 60 percent at the break, and the schedule is about to serve up a stretch of very winnable series. In a division nobody seems eager to run away with, a half game is nothing.

José Ramírez Is Back, and the Front Office Is Shopping

The biggest roster news of the week was the best kind: José Ramírez was activated from the injured list Wednesday after missing over a month following surgery on a fractured hamate bone, and he wasted no time, going 2-for-5 with two RBIs in his first game back. A lineup this starved for slug just got its best hitter back with ten days to spare before the deadline.

• José Ramírez (3B): activated Wednesday from the IL after June hamate surgery; went 2-for-5 with two RBIs in his return.
• Angel Martínez (OF): remained on the injured list as of the break, per MLB.com.
• Logan Allen (LHP): recalled to start the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.

On the trade front, the reporting paints Cleveland as a buyer, if a characteristically restrained one. MLB Trade Rumors expects the Guardians to add without touching their top prospects, with outfield, first base, rotation depth and the bullpen all flagged as needs. Andre Knott of ESPN Cleveland went further, saying he would be “shocked” if the front office does not acquire a reliever before the deadline, and reporting that the club wants a right-handed first base bat — understandable given Hoskins carried a .178 average and nine homers into the break, Monday's two-homer outburst notwithstanding. Treat all of that as reporting, not done deals, but the direction is clear: this team plans to add.

What's Next for the Cleveland Guardians

The schedule softens in degree of difficulty but not in importance. After Thursday's series finale against the Twins, Cleveland hits the road for six games against two teams it should handle, then returns home to open August.

• July 23: vs. Minnesota Twins, series finale at Progressive Field (1:10 p.m. ET)
• July 24-26: at Tampa Bay Rays, three games at Tropicana Field
• July 27-29: at Cincinnati Reds, three games at Great American Ball Park
• July 31: home series opener vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

Watch three things over the next week. First, whether Ramírez's timing at the plate comes back quickly, because his presence changes every other at-bat in the order. Second, how the rotation holds up behind Williams and Tanner Bibee with Cecconi wobbling. Third, the phones — every day closer to the deadline raises the odds of a bullpen arm or a first baseman showing up in the clubhouse.

The Cleveland Guardians did not gain ground this week, but they may have gained something more useful: proof the young hitters can carry an offense for stretches, and the return of the one player who can carry it every night. If the front office follows through on the buying it has telegraphed, the second half in Cleveland is set up to be a genuine race — and the Guardians have the easier road the rest of this month. Half a game is right there for the taking.