Guards’ struggles with RISP lead to costly sweep in Cincy

CINCINNATI — From their first trip to the plate to their last, the Guardians gave themselves a shot on Sunday afternoon. From the first inning to the ninth, they had a tough time cashing in.

Cleveland went 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners on base in its 3-1 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball park. Cincinnati completed a three-game sweep with the win, in the first Ohio Cup matchup of the season.

It marked a tough — and frustrating — start to a 10-game road trip for the Guardians, who have lost four straight games for the first time this season and were swept for the first time since March 31-April 2 (at the Padres).

Cleveland (25-21) will now head to Minnesota for a three-game series against the Twins followed by a four-game set against the Tigers. Minnesota (26-21) won 13 straight games before a 5-2 loss to the Brewers on Sunday. The Tigers have the best record in MLB (31-16).

“I thought our pitching was great all weekend, outside of a couple home run balls,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “I think that was really the tale of the weekend. They got a couple big hits and we didn’t. Frustrating weekend, no doubt. Three games you feel like you could have won that you didn’t.”

The Reds outscored the Guardians 12-6 and outhomered them 6-3 over the three-game series, (including 2-1 on Sunday). A frequent inflictor of the damage was outfielder Will Benson — Cleveland’s first-round pick in the 2016 MLB Draft — who went deep in all three games of the series.

Benson hit a pair of homers on Sunday off Guardians starter Luis Ortiz: a two-run blast in the fourth inning and a solo homer in the sixth. Those were the only runs Ortiz surrendered over five innings, in which he allowed six hits and two walks while striking out seven.

Benson crushed a four-seamer middle-in for his first homer, followed by a slider on the inner third of the plate for his second.

“He didn’t miss them,” Vogt said. “We need to execute better in those situations. But tip your cap to him. He hit some good pitches.”

“We’ve got to execute our plan,” Ortiz said through team interpreter Agustin Rivero.

Even with the home runs, Ortiz didn’t have a lot of margin for error. The Guardians entered the weekend hitting .253 with runners in scoring position (15th in MLB), but they struggled to cash in when they had opportunities, and Sunday was the toughest of the three games.

The Guardians put their leadoff man on base in six innings in the series finale, and they did not score in any of those spots. They loaded the bases in the first inning with one out, with a Steven Kwan hit-by-pitch and one-out walks by Carlos Santana and Gabriel Arias. Reds starter Andrew Abbott escaped by striking out Jhonkensy Noel and getting Angel Martínez to line out to shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

“When we don’t execute, we don’t score runs,” Vogt said. “I know that sounds really elementary, but those are the situations we have to find a way to put the ball in play, and we just weren’t able to today.”

Bo Naylor led off the ninth with a double and José Ramírez hit a one-out infield single. Santana worked a stellar 10-pitch at-bat against closer Emilio Pagán, in which he fouled off five pitches, before striking out on an 86.4 mph splitter down.

“[The goal was to] not try too much,” Santana said of his approach as that at-bat went on. “Try to make contact. We were behind two runs, so try to make him be on the plate.”

It was a frustrating end to a frustrating weekend. The Guardians will have to quickly turn the page. They’ve already gotten an up-close look at the Twins this season and played a tightly contested series. In their four-game series win from April 28-May 1, three games were settled by one or two runs.

Detroit has played as well as anybody at this point in the season.

“We haven’t seen the Tigers yet,” Vogt said. “We obviously know that they’re both good. We know the Twins are playing really well right now. So are the Tigers. … This is going to be a tough trip. We knew that coming into it. Not off to the best start, but we have a chance to rebound tomorrow, and that’s all we can ask for.”