HOUSTON -- Slade Cecconi was on his game Wednesday night.
With seven sparkling innings that included a career-high nine strikeouts, Ceconni helped the Guardians complete a three-game sweep of the Astros with a 4-2 victory at Daikin Park.
Cecconi didn’t allow a run until the eighth, when Mauricio Dubon hit his 98th pitch for an RBI double after Taylor Trammell walked. Dubon would score on Jose Altuve’s two-out double off Jakob Junis, but Junis struck out Cam Smith, and Paul Seward pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his second save.
“Huge night by Slade,” said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who did not have Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith or Hunter Gaddis available out of the bullpen. “Efficient. Strikes. Quick outs. The curveball was as sharp as we’ve seen it. Even mixed in some changeups, so I just can’t say enough about Slade’s outing.
“Where we were with the bullpen with this long stretch of 13 games [in 13 days], we needed an outing like this, and he got us into the eighth, to where we only needed to use two guys [in relief] when we really only had maybe three or four.”
Cecconi, who has a 2.10 ERA over 30 innings in his last five road starts, used an assortment of pitches to induce 13 whiffs. His curveball and slider drew four apiece, his changeup three, and his four-seam fastball and sinker one each.
“They were swinging first pitch,” Cecconi said. “The fourth inning, it was first pitch, out; first pitch, hit; first pitch, out; first pitch, swing. We noticed the trend: Hey, they’re hacking 0-0, so let’s either get ahead with the heater or throw a strike offspeed and make them take it. That plan worked.”
Cecconi said he might have shaken catcher Austin Hedges off twice all night.
“It’d be hard for someone not to work well with Hedgy,” Cecconi said. “He’s so freaking good back there. The way he thinks about the game of baseball … I mean, there’s three-dimensional thinking, and then there’s what he’s doing. It’s so nice when you can just trust what he’s calling and you start thinking on the same track with him, and you’re like, 'Wow, that pitch makes a lot of sense right now.' That gives you more conviction to throw it.”
Consider Vogt equally impressed with Hedges.
“That might have been one of the best games I’ve seen Hedgy call in the year and a half I’ve been here,” the manager said. “The job he does behind the plate doesn’t get talked about enough. Navigating Slade through that lineup three times is super impressive.”
The 26-year-old right-hander was delighted to have a 2-0 lead before he took the mound. Angel Martínez, whose 10th-inning grand slam won Tuesday’s game, and José Ramírez hit back-to-back home runs off Brandon Walter in the first. Those were the only baserunners Walter would allow in his six innings.
Jonathan Rodríguez added a two-run single off Bennett Sousa in the seventh, which Ramírez led off with a single that gave him 1,600 career hits. He’s the eighth player to reach that total while playing for Cleveland. The others are Nap Lajoie (2,052), Tris Speaker (1,965), Earl Averill (1,903), Joe Sewell (1,800), Charlie Jamieson (1,753), Lou Boudreau (1,706) and Omar Vizquel (1,616).
Ramírez announced Wednesday he was pulling out of next week’s All-Star Game to rest a right ankle that has bothered him since May 2, when he took a tumble while reaching first base at Toronto. If this is what an ailing Ramírez looks like, imagine when he gets healthy. Besides homering for the third consecutive game, Ramírez was part of a double steal with Carlos Santana ahead of Rodriguez’s single in the seventh. For the three-game series, Ramírez went 5-for-12 with three homers, a double, three steals, six RBIs and six runs.
The third baseman also proved the personal nemesis of Altuve on Wednesday. Ramírez started a double play on an Altuve grounder in the first, made a backhanded stop on a 98.8 mph grounder in the fourth, and made a sparkling play on a 96.6 mph grounder to rob Altuve of a hit to end the sixth. Vogt was asked if Ramírez is the healthiest hurting player he’s ever seen.
“It’s just who he is,” said Vogt, whose team’s sweep came on the heels of a 10-game losing streak. “He’s just so good. Clearly, if he’s saying he’s not going to the All-Star Game, he’s hurting. But he will never show it and will never tell you. That was some kind of defensive display he put on today.”