Nolan Jones drew a base-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cleveland Guardians a 1-0 win against the visiting Chicago White Sox in the opener of their three-game series Tuesday.
Carlos Santana grounded a single off the glove of diving first baseman Andrew Vaughn to start the ninth off Mike Clevinger (0-2). Kyle Manzardo and Jhonkensy Noel then drew back-to-back walks, bringing up Jones, who followed suit to end the game.
Cleveland starter Ben Lively threw five shutout innings, allowing two hits, striking out four and walking three.
White Sox starter Shane Smith blanked the Guardians on two hits over six innings in his second MLB start, striking out six and walking one.
Smith retired the first 12 batters in a row and then became the first Cleveland pitcher since David Cone in 1996 to take a no-hitter into the sixth inning of a home opener.
Jose Ramirez broke it up with a slow roller up the third base line off the end of his bat with two outs in the sixth. Santana then grounded a single through the right side to put runners on the corners, but Smith struck out Kyle Manzardo to end his outing.
Lively pitched around a pair of walks in the first inning, then walked his third batter to lead off the second, but got Lenyn Sosa to hit into a double play.
The White Sox put runners on first and third with no out in the fourth, but Lively got Vaughn to pop out to second and Matt Thaiss to hit into an inning-ending double play.
The Guardians, who committed four errors in a three-game series last weekend and came in with the worst fielding percentage in the majors at .970, benefited from a sharp play by second baseman Gabriel Arias on a hard one-hopper to end the fifth.
Cade Smith took over for Lively to start the sixth and walked the first two batters he faced, but then retired the next three hitters.
Paul Sewald, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase (2-0) followed with scoreless innings of relief for Cleveland.
Tyler Gilbert relieved Smith and pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings before Clevinger got Ramirez to fly out to end the eighth.
–Field Level Media
