– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BALTIMORE — Over the past few seasons, Steven Kwan has established himself as one of the top table-setters at the top of a batting order in baseball. On Tuesday, he decided to feast on the dinner table inside Oriole Park to lead the Guardians to victory.
Kwan drilled a two-run home run just inside the fair pole in the fifth inning to extend Cleveland’s lead, and the Guardians went on to defeat the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 on the road. Angel Martínez hit a triple to start the fifth inning as part of his 3-for-4 evening, while Logan Allen allowed just two hits and struck out six in 5 2/3 scoreless innings as the Guardians have now won five of their last six contests.
Kwan has been an instant impact player as one of the best contact hitters in the game since his 2022 debut, but his power stroke has come on over the past couple of years, hitting 14 homers last season after just six and five in his first two years in the bigs. His home run was tonight, with two outs and off Orioles starter Charlie Morton, was his third homer of the season, and he now has rate of hitting a long ball once in every 23.3 at-bats so far in the young season. Going into this season, Kwan homered once every 75.84 at-bats for his career.
Off-season acquisition Charlie Morton struggled once more on the mound for the Orioles, whose starting rotation is decimated by injuries and has struggled as a unit through the first three weeks of the season. After allowing a run and two hits in the first four innings (and 1-2-3 innings in the first and fourth), Morton allowed the extra bases to Martínez and Kwan, with a Bo Naylor run-scoring sacrifice fly in between. Morton allowed two more singles to José Ramírez and Carlos Santana immediately after the Kwan homer before getting the final two outs to close the fifth.
Baltimore didn’t get on the board until Cedric Mullins hit a solo shot off Cleveland reliever Joey Cantillo with one out in the seventh and the Guardians holding a 6-0 lead at that point. Ryan Mountcastle had an RBI double in the eight inning, which was followed by a Gary Sánchez run-scoring single.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Timothy Rice. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 27 pictures in total.
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