Ramírez’s Twin Home Runs Lift Cleveland to Series-Closing Win Over Baltimore Orioles

Witnessing history has become a norm, especially at Progressive Field.

On Sunday, April 19, the Cleveland Guardians played host to the Baltimore Orioles for the final outing of a four-game series. With a stellar performance from José Ramírez that included two home runs, the team was able to march to an 8-4 win.

His two homers were his 137th and 138th at home, surpassing Earl Averill for second most in franchise history. The sole body ahead of him now is Jim Thome, who has a mark of 184.

"It's extremely hard [to do], and yeah, I do marvel at it," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said about the level of play José Ramírez has been providing lately. "When your name is circled thicker or darker than anybody else's in the lineup, especially when he's hitting right-handed, teams do not want him to beat them right-handed... So for him to get two homers back-to-back at bats like that, you could just see, he hits a different gear, he hits a different mindset. It's super impressive."

On the 2026 campaign, he's now slashing .229/.354/.494 for an OPS of .848. He is up to 19 hits, four doubles, six home runs and 12 RBI. One of his best attributes, his eye, has helped him draw 16 walks to 13 strikeouts.

Four of his six this season have been solo homers. If Cleveland's able to start loading up the bases more before he gets to the plate, there's no doubt the Guardians' total run count will start to grow tenfold.

Alongside Ramírez, Brayan Rocchio and Juan Brito played well at the plate. Both were able to hit in runs for Cleveland.

Brito's two RBI came on a crushed double dead center, which landed right over the head of Baltimore's center fielder. He brought in David Fry and Daniel Schneemann to score the second and third runs of the game.

The following at-bat, Rocchio knocked a single into left field that sent Brito in to score. Later in the game, Rocchio again came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded, before sending a liner up the middle to tack on two more runs, giving the Guardians an 8-4 advantage.

He finished with a 3-for-4 day from the plate that included three RBI. He now leads the team with 14 this season.

Just last night, Rocchio was Cleveland's hero as he sent a towering three-run home run into right field to help push the team to a win.

The Pitching Support

Starting pitcher Joey Cantillo was able to give the Guardians a really strong four innings while on the mound. However, when the team put him back out onto the mound for the fifth, he started to waver and ended up giving up a three-run home run.

The pitch thrown to Taylor Ward that was blasted was tossed inside at 89.5 mph, with him just simply squaring up the ball nicely. Ward's rocket shot left the bat at 107.8 mph, going into the left field bleachers.

After Cantillo gave up three, the Guardians, who were still leading, jumped right into the bullpen.

Fortunately, they continued to rewrite the recent narrative surrounding their play, providing Cleveland with an incredibly strong final 4.1 innings.

A combination of Matt Festa, Erik Sabrowski, Peyton Pallette and Cade Smith allowed no hits, just one walk and struck out six batters. Of the bunch, Pallette was out there the longest, eating up two innings for the team.

"Yeah, that was probably one of my favorite outings of the year, was Peyton coming in and hadn't pitched for, what, eight, nine days," Vogt said. "And he had to get six outs for us just with where the bullpen was, with who we had available. We needed that from Peyton. Man, he was not big-eyed and locked it in and got six very good hitters out."

The Guardians are right back in action on Monday, April 20, in a date with the Houston Astros. The two sides will play a three-game series that runs through Wednesday.