Ben Lively and Emmanuel Clase help power Guardians to finish off Angels in series sweep
ANAHEIM — Ben Lively threw seven strong innings and got just enough support from the bullpen to lead the Cleveland Guardians to a 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels Sunday afternoon, completing a three-game sweep and extending their winning streak to nine games.
The Guardians have swept three straight three-game series in the stretch. The winning streak is the franchise's longest since winning a record 22 in a row in 2017.
The Guardians (36-17) lead the AL Central by 2.5 games after the Royals saw their eight-game winning streak end Sunday with a loss to the Rays.
Lively yielded a two-run homer to Angels catcher Matt Thaiss in the fifth inning and nothing else, getting through seven innings for the first time in eight starts this season.
Lively (4-2), who has won each of his last three starts, gave up the two runs on four hits and two walks, striking out five.
The Guardians finished with just six hits, getting two apiece from Andres Gimenez and Johnathan Rodriguez.
The Angels made things interesting with two runs in the eighth inning to get within 5-4, but Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase pitched a scoreless ninth for his 17th save. He leads MLB in saves this season.
Clase has allowed just one earned run this season in 28 appearances covering 27.1 innings
The Guardians broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the third inning against Angels starter Reid Detmers (3-5). Gimenez got hit by a pitch with one out, Jose Ramirez followed with a walk, and after Josh Naylor struck out for the second out of the inning, Gimenez and Ramirez pulled off a double steal.
David Fry walked to load the bases for Rodriguez, who doubled to left field, driving in two for a 2-0 Guardians lead.
Lively kept the Angels off the scoreboard until the fifth. He struck out the first two batters of the inning before yielding a bunt single to Zach Neto. Thaiss followed with a two-run homer, tying the game 2-2.
The game remained tied only until the top of the sixth, when the Guardians knocked Detmers out of the game before putting up three runs to take a 5-2 lead.
Tyler Freeman drove in the first run of the inning when Adam Cimber hit him with a pitch with the bases loaded. Gimenez followed with an RBI single and Matt Moore walked Ramirez with the bases loaded to push across the third run of the inning.
Detmers allowed a single to the first batter of the inning and was removed, but not before he was on the hook for another loss. He allowed three runs on four hits and four walks in five-plus innings, striking out eight.
The Angels narrowed their deficit to 5-4 in the eighth inning on a pair of two-out, RBI singles — one by Luis Rengifo and the other by Kevin Pillar.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Emmanuel Clase saves another Guardians win to finish sweep of Angels
