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07/20 22:29 CDT Power surge: Guardians hit 7 homers against Twins, 1 short of
franchise record
Power surge: Guardians hit 7 homers against Twins, 1 short of franchise record
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer
CLEVELAND (AP) --- Manager Stephen Vogt and the Cleveland Guardians have been
searching for a breakout game on offense for most of the season.
They finally got it Monday night.
The Guardians hit seven home runs in a 13-4 victory over Minnesota Twins, one
short of the franchise record and matching the record for a home game.
It was an unlikely power surge for the Guardians, who came into the game tied
with Tampa Bay for the third-fewest homers in the majors with 94.
"A really fun night," Vogt said. "The coolest feeling in the world is hitting a
home run in the big leagues. So to see our guys keep doing it, obviously we're
getting good pitches to hit and we're not missing them. I think that's more
telling than anything."
Five of the longballs were by players who came into the game batting under
.200. Petey Halpin and Rhys Hoskins each went deep twice and Patrick Bailey's
shot in the seventh made it the sixth game in the franchise's 125 seasons with
at least seven homers. Cleveland hit eight home runs at Milwaukee on April 25,
1997, and at Seattle on July 16, 2004.
"We've been talking a lot about how both good and bad things are so contagious
in this game and we feed off that as a team," said Hoskins, who came into the
game batting .177.
It was the first time two Cleveland players homered at least twice in a game
since Jos Ramrez and Carlos Santana did it in 2019 against the Yankees.
Brayan Rocchio and Travis Bazzana also went deep for Cleveland, which also
homered seven times at home on April 30, 2013 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
It's the fourth time this season a major league team has hit at least seven
homers. The Chicago Cubs had eight in their 23-3 win over the San Diego Padres
on July 1.
Twins starter Joe Ryan became the 11th starting pitcher in major league history
to give up six homers in a game. It was also a franchise record for homers
allowed. Ryan, who pitched in his second All-Star Game last week, left too many
of his 78 pitches over the middle of the plate as the Guardians took advantage
of an off night by the right-hander.
"It's a tough one, right, because I'm the one that's wearing it. It's
definitely all on me," said Ryan, who allowed eight runs and a career-high 10
hits in four innings, raising his ERA from 2.85 to 3.38. "It's definitely
frustrating and not the way you want to start a series against this team. They
beat me to the spot more times than I got them."
Vogt was happiest for Halpin, who hit his first two major league homers with
drives to right-center in the second and fourth innings.
"It feels incredible. I think that my role and what I try to do is get on base
for the guys that do hit home runs. And today I was able to connect on a couple
of them," Halpin said.
Halpin's homer in the fourth extended Cleveland's lead to 8-2. According to
Sportradar, it was the first time since 1974 --- when innings data started to
be tracked --- that Cleveland had six homers in the first four innings. It had
five on July 22, 1994, against the Chicago White Sox and on Aug. 15, 2019, at
the New York Yankees.
It was the 24th time that has happened in the majors during that span. The last
was by the New York Yankees on Aug. 27, 2025, against the Washington Nationals.
Rocchio hit a two-run homer to right in the first. Two pitches later, Hoskins
followed with a drive down the line in left to make it 3-0. It was the second
time this season that Rocchio and Hoskins have gone back to back. They also did
it against the Twins on July 8.
Bailey led off the seventh with a solo shot to center off Woo-Suk Go. The
Guardians also had three other balls that went off the wall for doubles.
"I think it was just a great commitment on our part to really not be sold out,
but be really confident about what we're trying to do with the fastball,"
Hoskins said. "I also think it gives you some conviction on which ones are
balls. And I think we just did a really good job of that today. Ready to hit on
the ones that weren't up. And I think a lot of those are the ones that we did
damage on, those are the pitches that you can't miss against a guy like that
and we just didn't do that tonight."
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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