SAN DIEGO (AP) — Cal Quantrill shut down his former team through seven brilliant innings, All-Star José Ramírez homered in consecutive at-bats, and rookie Oscar Gonzalez connected again for the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians, who beat Blake Snell and the San Diego Padres 7-0 on Wednesday.
The Guardians swept the two-game set and won the season series 3-1.
The Padres scored only nine runs in a homestand against Washington and Cleveland, one shy of the club record for the fewest over for a six-game homestand. The Padres, fighting to hold onto the NL’s third wild-card spot, were booed by what remained of a crowd of 30,409.
Quantrill (10-5) was pitching at Petco Park for the first time since he was acquired by Cleveland in the nine-player trade that sent Mike Clevinger to San Diego at the deadline in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
The right-hander, taken by the Padres with the eighth pick overall in the 2016 draft, held San Diego scoreless while allowing just five hits and extricating himself from the two trouble spots he got into. He struck out six and walked one.
Quantrill allowed singles to Josh Bell and Kim Ha-seong opening the fifth, and then retired the next three batters, pumping his fist as he walked off the mound. The Padres loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh before Quantrill struck out Jorge Alfaro.
The Guardians have won each of Quantrill’s last nine starts and he’s won six straight decisions. He hasn’t lost since July 5 at Detroit.
Snell (5-7) was a strike away from getting out of the first inning when Ramirez homered to left-center on an 0-2 pitch.
Ramirez homered again leading off the five-run fourth, his 25th. It was his third multi-homer game of the season and 20th of his career. Gonzalez followed with a shot to left, the third time the Guardians have hit back-to-back homers this season. Gonzalez also homered in a 3-1 win Tuesday night.
Luke Maile hit a one-out RBI single and Myles Straw singled to load the bases and chase Snell. Steven Kwan greeted Steven Wilson with a two-run single. The Padres finally got out of it when Amed Rosario flied out to right and Wil Myers threw out Straw trying to score.
Ramirez got his third RBI on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Snell allowed six runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings, struck out four and walked none.
TRAINER’S ROOM
The Padres without RF Juan Soto a second straight day with left mid-back tightness.
UP NEXT
Guardians RHP Triston McKenzie (9-9, 3.11 ERA) is scheduled to start Thursday in the opener of a four-game series at Seattle. The Mariners will counter with LHP Marco Gonzales (8-12, 4.08).
Padres: Haven’t named a starter for Friday night’s series opener at Kansas City. The Royals are set to go with LHP Kris Bubic (2-8, 5.29).
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