Aaron Civale pitched seven scoreless innings, and Josh Naylor and Andres Gimenez hit solo home runs as the Cleveland Guardians defeated the host Seattle Mariners 2-0 Saturday night.
Civale (1-0), a right-hander, allowed two hits, walked one and struck out three.
Reliever James Karinchak, who allowed the decisive three-run homer in a 3-0 loss in the season opener Thursday, gave up a one-out double to Tommy La Stella in the eighth. With the crowd counting down the clock on each pitch, Karinchak caught pinch-hitter Cal Raleigh looking at a called third strike before walking J.P. Crawford on four straight pitches, bringing up Julio Rodriguez. Karinchak fanned the reigning American League Rookie of the Year to end the inning.
Emmanuel Clase worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the season.
Naylor opened the scoring with one out in the fourth, hitting a 1-0 pitch from Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert (0-1) over the wall in center field.
Gilbert went six innings, allowing one run on four hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Gimenez homered to right on a 2-1 pitch from reliever Diego Castillo with one out in the seventh.
The only hits Civale allowed were to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez led off the bottom of the first by grounding a single into left field and, following a fly out by Kolten Wong, stole second. Civale got both Ty France and Eugenio Suarez to ground out to third to end the threat.
Rodriguez grounded another single into left with two outs in the third before Wong flew out to end the inning.
Seattle’s J.P. Crawford led off the sixth by reaching on a throwing error by shortstop Amed Rosario, bringing Rodriguez to the plate. He hit a chopper up the middle, with second baseman Gimenez making a sliding stop behind the bag before jumping to his feet to touch second and fire to first to double up the speedy Rodriguez.
–Field Level Media
