DENVER (AP) — José Ramírez got four more hits, Steven Kwan made a remarkable diving catch in the seventh inning to preserve the lead, and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Colorado Rockies 7-5 on Wednesday night for their 12th win in 15 games.
Josh Naylor delivered the go-ahead double in the fifth and Amed Rosario added four hits, including his first home run, as Cleveland (31-27) moved four games above .500 for the first time this season.
Kwan pinch-hit for Oscar Mercado in the fifth inning after Mercado dropped a fly ball, allowing a run to score. With the Guardians clinging to a 6-5 lead with runners at the corners and two outs, Kwan bolted to his right on Jose Iglesias’ liner and made a fully extended, diving grab on the warning track.
“I thought he had zero chance of catching that,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “I’m thinking, OK, he’s going to leave his feet and that guy at first is going to score. He willed himself to catch that ball. That was a great play.”
Added Kwan: “I needed every inch of me and the glove on that.”
Bryan Shaw (3-0) pitched a scoreless eighth and Emmanuel Clase worked the ninth for his 13th save.
Charlie Blackmon had two hits on the night he reached 10 years of major league service time and Yonathan Daza doubled, singled and drove in a run for the Rockies.
“We just couldn’t generate the big hit when we needed to,” manager Bud Black said.
Ramírez entered the night with a major league-best 62 RBIs. While he didn’t add to that total, his third-inning double gave him 39 extra-base hits, the most in franchise history through the first 58 games of a season. Ramírez is 14 for 29 in the past seven games, pushing his batting average to .307.
Konnor Pilkington lasted just 4 1/3 innings for the Guardians, giving up four runs — two earned —…
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