José Ramírez ended the quiet stretch with one swing and helped turn a hot afternoon into a power show. He hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning Sunday as the Guardians beat the Reds 10-3 and wrapped up the three-game series.
The Guardians hit six home runs in all, their most in a game since Aug. 15, 2019. Ramírez's blast was his first since April 19, and it arrived after Kyle Manzardo had already hit two home runs against Brady Singer. Chase DeLauter opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the first inning, Brayan Rocchio added a solo shot in the fourth, and Ángel Martínez connected for a two-run homer in the seventh.
It was the kind of day that keeps piling on from the first inning to the last. Cleveland scored in bunches, and the ball kept leaving the park in a game played in 79 degrees. The six-homer outburst also gave the Guardians their third game of multiple home runs, and it stood as their highest total since Aug. 15, 2019.
The franchise has done this kind of thing before, but not often. Cleveland last hit seven home runs at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario against the Phillies on April 30, 2013, and it had not produced this many in one game since it tagged the Yankees for seven on Aug. 15, 2019. Sunday's power surge did not reach that level, but it was close enough to feel like a statement.
The tension in a game like this is whether the barrage will keep coming or whether the last swing will be the last word. Ramírez answered that part early in the eighth, and the Guardians never had to wonder after that. For one afternoon, the lineup looked like it could score from anywhere in the order, and the Reds had no answer for the depth of the damage.
