Guardians rally past Nationals to avoid 3-game slide

Cal Quantrill and three Cleveland relievers combined for five consecutive shutout innings to end the game and the visiting Guardians came back from a three-run deficit to defeat the Washington Nationals 4-3 on Friday night.

Josh Bell belted a solo homer off his old team for his first long ball with Cleveland and later doubled in the eighth. Trevor Stephan (1-0) was the winning pitcher with one shutout inning, and he was followed from the bullpen by James Karinchak and Emmanuel Clase.

Bell's homer came to lead off the seventh against Hunter Harvey, who left later in the inning with the bases loaded and two outs. Ramirez worked a walk off Carl Edwards Jr. (0-1) to tie the game. The Guardians took the lead for good in the eighth inning when Will Brennan's groundout scored Andres Gimenez.

Washington's Luis Garcia homered and Alex Call drove in two runs, but the Nationals lost for the sixth time in seven home games this season.

Washington starter Trevor Williams took a shutout into the sixth inning. Williams allowed one run on four hits in five-plus innings to begin the three-game series. He walked two and struck out two.

Quantrill gave up three runs on six hits in six innings.

Jose Ramirez and Brennan joined Bell with two hits for Cleveland. The Guardians avoided a season-high three-game losing streak.

Jeimer Candelario, Lane Thomas and Garcia all had two hits for Washington.

The Nationals had two hits through three innings, then racked up four more in the three-run fourth.

Garcia's first home run of the season came with one out in the fourth for the game's first run. Call's two-out single knocked in the next two runs.

Williams was done after Cleveland's first two batters in the sixth reached on a ground rule double and a single. Two of the hits given up by Williams were doubles -- by Amed Rosario and Brennan.

Harvey was summoned from the bullpen, and the Guardians got on the board when Josh Naylor grounded into a double play on his first pitch. But Harvey needed just four pitches to get out of the sixth-inning jam, striking out Gimenez on three pitches.

Clase earned his fourth save of the season for Cleveland.