Bryce Harper belted a two-run homer and Ranger Suarez threw seven shutout innings in his second start of the season as the visiting Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-1 on Saturday night.
Harper had a season-high three hits, and his 411-foot shot to center off reliever Joey Cantillo ignited a six-run eighth for Philadelphia, which won for the 10th time in 13 games.
Suarez (1-0) surrendered only three hits, all singles, during his 82-pitch outing. The left-hander struck out five and walked one walk after being on the injured list for most of the season with low back stiffness.
Kyle Schwarber extended his on-base streak to 45 games with a pair of singles, moving into a tie for the fourth-longest streak in Phillies history. Odubel Herrera reached in 45 straight games, although that began in the 2017 season and carried over into 2018.
Cleveland, which is 20-10 in a run that started April 8, scored its lone run in the ninth against Joe Ross. Carlos Santana had a sacrifice fly that brought home Gabriel Arias for his 1,100th career RBI. He is the 18th switch hitter in major league history to reach that plateau.
Guardians starter Tanner Bibee (3-3) was almost as effective as Suarez, giving up one run over seven innings. The right-hander allowed five hits while striking out three and walking none, but his winning streak stopped at two.
Max Kepler's two-run double and RBI singles by Brandon Marsh and Edmundo Sosa accounted for the remainder of the runs in the eighth as Cantillo permitted the first seven batters he faced to reach base. He was charged with five runs and seven hits in 1 1/3 innings.
The teams have split the first two games of their interleague series. Cleveland hit three homers in a 6-0 victory on Friday.
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Rafael Devers played first base for the San Francisco Giants for the first time on Tuesday, and his quote about playing the field likely will not sit well with Boston Red Sox fans. Devers said after Tuesday’s game that he prefers playing in the field as opposed to serving as a designated hitter. “It keeps me active. It keeps my head out of just thinking about the next at-bat,” Devers said, via Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’d rather be on the field than in the cage hitting all the time and thinking about the next at-bat.” Devers, of course, refused to play first base for the Red Sox after they asked him to. He felt disrespected after they moved him off third base to accommodate Alex Bregman, and thought the team went back on its word by later asking him to play first. To Red Sox fans, if Devers is best playing in the field and playing first would have helped the team, it will be baffling why he did not just do it when that would seemingly have been a preferable outcome for all involved. Devers went 2-for-5 in Tuesday’s 9-0 win over the Atlanta Braves, driving in a run in his first appearance at first base. It remains unclear how frequently the Giants plan to use him at the position, but the team might take note of these comments.
There isn't a specific date for wide receiver Christian Watson to return to the field. He won't practice throughout training camp, and will possibly start the regular season on the physically unable to perform list, missing the first four games of the year. But the Green Bay Packers are pleased with his recovery process. Before the first day of training camp practice on Wednesday, general manager Brian Gutekunst talked about Watson and how he's looking less than seven months after tearing his ACL against the Chicago Bears in January. "[Christian Watson looks] Great. Yeah, he's kind of a freak, you know," Gutekunst mentioned. "He did a run test the other day and looked great. Again, it's an ACL, and it's his second one, so we're going to take our time with it. I'm sure there's going to be a time where he's really pressing to get out there, but he's doing great." PUP rules At this moment, Christian Watson is on the active/PUP list, which means he can be activated at any point before the regular season. If he's to miss the first month of the season anyway, the Packers can move him to the reserve/PUP list on cutdown day, so he wouldn't count against the initial 53-man roster—and would miss at least the first four games, against the Detroit Lions, Washington Commanders, Cleveland Browns, and Dallas Cowboys. The Packers could open his 21-day practice window following that, and after three weeks the team had to make a final call about activating him or moving him to the injured reserve. However, the team is not forced to open the practice window after three weeks, and Watson could spend more time on the PUP. Usually, the Packers tend to wait ten months for players with ACL injuries to return, putting the wide receiver in position to play in early November. There is a curious extra element that applies to Watson, even though it's an unlikely one. Because he is in the final year of his deal, if Watson spends the entire season on PUP and is never activated, his contract will toll to 2026. That means he would be under contract for next year, with the same $1.965 million base salary. Players who weren't on the field on Wednesday: LB Quay Walker (ankle) WR Christian Watson (knee) CB Micah Robinson (knee) EDGE/LB Collin Oliver (hamstring) RB Amar Johnson (hamstring) G John Williams (back) C Elgton Jenkins (back)
The New York Giants officially opened training camp on Wednesday, and the good news for Jaxson Dart was that the rookie had nowhere to go but up after his first play of practice. Dart’s very first pass of 11-on-11 drills was intercepted by third-year cornerback Nic Jones. Dart stared his receiver down the entire way, and Jones showed the former Ole Miss star why doing so in the NFL is never a good idea. The whistle blew after the interception, but Jones would have taken it the other way for a touchdown had the play been live. Like any rookie quarterback, Dart is going to make plenty more mistakes in training camp. Brian Daboll and the Giants’ coaching staff will be more interested in how Dart bounces back from them. The Giants traded up to select Dart in the first round and are very high on his ability. They plan to bring him along slowly, which Daboll seemed to reiterate again on Wednesday. Dart led the SEC with 4,279 passing yards last season. He threw 29 touchdown passes and is known for having a strong arm, but throwing windows get significantly tighter in the NFL. Dart will learn that as he gains more experience.
A clear frontrunner appears to be separating himself from the pack in the Cleveland Browns’ QB room. Browns quarterback Kenny Pickett handled all of the first-team offense reps in 11-on-11 drills during the first day of training camp on Wednesday, Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN reported. Meanwhile, Dillon Gabriel received the second-team reps, Shedeur Sanders received the third-team reps, and Joe Flacco did not receive any 11-on-11 reps at all, Oyefusi added. Cleveland has one of the most hotly-contested and uncertain QB races of the NFL offseason. With Deshaun Watson (Achilles) set to miss the entire 2025 season, the Browns acted quickly this offseason by trading for Pickett, re-signing Flacco, and then selecting both Gabriel and Sanders in the NFL Draft. Pickett, 27, indeed looks like the best option for Cleveland right now. He has already made 25 total starts in the NFL and won a Super Bowl last season as Jalen Hurts’ backup on the Philadelphia Eagles. That gives Pickett a leg up over the rookies Gabriel and Sanders, and he is also far younger than the 40-year-old Flacco. Previous reports during OTAs suggested that Flacco, who made a handful of starts for the Browns in 2023, was looking surprisingly good under center. But more recently, some Cleveland players were predicting that Pickett would end up as the ultimate winner of the race. Meanwhile, Gabriel had reportedly looked a little rough over the last couple of months, and Sanders still appears to have plenty of work to do as well (though he has received rave reviews from some notable team figures). With a rookie unlikely to get the starting nod to begin the year, it may be a two-horse race between Pickett and Flacco (with Pickett now seemingly pulling away).
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