Guardians rally to take down Dodgers 8-3

It took a collective effort, but the Cleveland Guardians took down the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-3 Tuesday night.

At first, it did not appear it was going to be the Guardians' night. Noah Syndergaard gave up two runs in the 1st inning after giving up a leadoff single to Mookie Betts and a one-out two-run home run to Will Smith. Freddie Freeman would drive in a third run in the 3rd, giving Los Angeles a 3-0 run early. Adding to that early hole was the fact that yet again, baserunners were not afraid to run on Syndergaard, with Betts stealing two bases and Freeman stealing one for himself. This just set everything up for an epic comeback.

The Guardians had a tough time the first time through the order, but a few unlikely heroes got the scoring started for Cleveland the second time around. Oscar Gonzalez connected on his first home run since returning to the Guardians in the 4th to get the team on the board. Gabriel Arias would drive in Andres Gimenez to cut the Dodgers lead to one.

Neither team scored in the 5th and 6th innings, but once the 7th inning came around, it was all Guardians. Steven Kwan would single to center with one out, allowing Will Brennan to score, tying the game at 3. Jose Ramirez would follow with an RBI single of his own to give Cleveland a one run lead.

And finally, putting the cherry on top of the inning, the unlikeliest of unlikely events to come to fruition, Kole Calhoun connected on a first-pitch cutter that sat middle-middle, barely sending it over the fence for a three-run home run. The wall-scraper from Calhoun gave Cleveland a commanding four-run lead that clearly stunned the Dodgers. Another run would score the following inning on a Myles Straw infield single, giving Cleveland their eighth and final run.

Cleveland is now 60-66 on the year with the win. Paired with the Twins losing 7-3 to Milwaukee, Cleveland sits five games back of Minnesota. The Guardians have two more games against the Dodgers, not an easy matchup by any means, while the Twins take on the Brewers one more time before taking on the Texas Rangers for a four-game weekend series. Cleveland will travel north of the border to Toronto before taking on the Twins six times in 10 days which will ultimately decide their fate.