CLEVELAND -- Most of the time when a team visits a ballpark on the road, they only have one or two players who are making a return to a park that means something to them.
In this week’s series against the Guardians, the Toronto Blue Jays have four -- Andrés Giménez, Myles Straw, Nick Sandlin and Ernie Clement -- and nearly all of them made an impact in Toronto’s 10-6 win on Tuesday night at Progressive Field.
While they all had differing tenures in Cleveland, they were all around long enough to make an impact on the organization and the fan base, which likely made the win mean just a bit more.
“We did a lot of trading with Cleveland in the offseason,” Blue Jays manager John Schenider said with a laugh pregame. “They’re familiar with the group and have some good insight for us. They did some pretty cool things for [the Guardians].”
Giménez pulled off a near replica of one of those “cool things” when he robbed Johnathan Rodríguez of a hit in the second inning on one of his signature diving stops toward the middle of the diamond.
“I didn’t think he had a chance,” Clement said. “It was pretty amazing.”
For four years, that play would have caused the fans at Progressive Field to stand up and cheer. This time, it resulted in more than 20,000 groans.
That play helped the Blue Jays hold the 1-0 lead they got earlier in the game when Clement bounced an RBI double down the left-field line to score Bo Bichette.
Straw also contributed to the Guardians fans’ restlessness when he slugged a ball to right field that brought in a run after Rodríguez committed two errors on the play.
The win was also a tangible example of how Clement has impacted the Blue Jays this year.
He showcased his strong defense (99th percentile in Outs Above Average) by robbing Ángel Martínez with a sweet barehand play, and he showcased his speed with a stolen base in the fifth inning before scoring on an RBI single from Alejandro Kirk.
Clement went 1-for-2 with that double and a walk against Guardians southpaw Logan Allen. Clement entered the game leading the Major Leagues with a .434 batting average against left-handed pitching.
“You look up at his numbers and they’re pretty astronomical,” Schneider said. “When you can eliminate the breaking ball going away, it puts him in the driver’s seat. He’s a very useful player.”
Clement was the first of the former Guardians to make the venture up north when he signed a Minor League contract with the organization in 2023. The rest of the quartet joined him this offseason after the Blue Jays made two trades with the Guardians. So far, all of those moves have been wins.
While Giménez has struggled at the plate after a hot start, he’s still playing Gold Glove defense (as he showed on Tuesday), while Straw has held center field down admirably during Daulton Varsho’s two trips to the injured list. Couple that with Sandlin’s 1.86 ERA, and you’ve got a pretty food foursome with a shared lineage.
“I love coming back here," Clement said. "This city is special to me and there’s a lot of people over there who helped me throughout my career… But with that being said, it’s awesome to kick their [butt].”
That helped back another strong start from Eric Lauer, who has done nothing but shove since being called up from Triple-A Buffalo on April 30. He scattered five hits and three walks across 5 1/3 innings in front of more than 50 friends and family.
While Tuesday’s outing marked the third straight start for the Elyria, Ohio, native, it was his first one since “officially” becoming a member of the team’s rotation. It also marked the first time he got to face a lineup for a third time.
“It’s something that’s becoming a little more rare, but it makes the game interesting,” Lauer said.
The Guardians also got some key contributions from players on their roster without Cleveland connections as well. Kirk went 2-for-4 with two RBIs (he drove Clement in both times), Jonatan Clase had a big two-run single and George Springer crushed a key two-out grand slam in the eighth inning that put the game away.
“This is a special group, we’re a really close-knit group,” Springer said. “There’s a lot of baseball left to be played, so we’re trying to take things one day at a time.”