Major League Baseball
Toronto 3, Cleveland 1
When: 7:10 PM ET, Monday, August 7, 2023
Where: Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
Temperature: 70°
Umpires: Home - Chad Fairchild, 1B - Charlie Ramos, 2B - Nic Lentz, 3B - Jeremie Rehak
Attendance: 18198

Cavan Biggio hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to break a scoreless tie and help lift the visiting Toronto Blue Jays to a 3-1 win against the Cleveland Guardians in the opener of a four-game series on Monday night.

Enyel De Los Santos (4-2) started the eighth after rookie right-hander Gavin Williams had blanked the Blue Jays on one hit over seven innings. De Los Santos gave up a one-out, broken-bat single to Daulton Varsho before Biggio lifted a changeup over the fence in center field for a 2-0 lead.

Biggio then pulled off an unassisted double play while playing second base in the bottom half of the inning to strand the tying run at third.

Toronto starter Hyun Jin Ryu made his second start since returning from Tommy John surgery in June of 2022, but his night was cut short when he was hit in the lower right leg by a line drive off the bat of Oscar Gonzalez at the end of the fourth inning.

Ryu, who had not allowed a hit when he was drilled, retrieved the ball and threw Gonzalez out at first, but then collapsed in pain. After several minutes, he walked off the field under his own power and was later diagnosed with a right knee contusion.

Jay Jackson, Genesis Cabrera and Erik Swanson (3-2) threw one shutout inning apiece before Bo Naylor delivered a one-out RBI single in the eighth off Tim Mayza to cut Toronto's lead to 2-1 and put runners on the corners.

Biggio then fielded a grounder from Steven Kwan while playing in, tagged Naylor about 10 feet off the first base bag and then stepped on first for the final out.

The Blue Jays tacked on an insurance run in the ninth on an RBI single by George Springer to make it 3-1.

Jordan Hicks stranded the bases loaded in the ninth for his 10th save.

Williams struck out a career-high 12 batters, the most by a Cleveland rookie since Luis Tiant fanned 12 in 1964. Williams walked one in his ninth major league start.

Williams gave up his only hit to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with two outs in the first and pitched around his only walk in the second.

Brayan Rocchio had two hits for Cleveland, which has lost six of its last seven.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Toronto   Cleveland
Hyun Jin Ryu Player Gavin Williams
No Decision W/L No Decision
4.0 IP 7.0
2 Strikeouts 12
0 Hits 1
0.00 ERA 0.00
Hitting
Toronto   Cleveland
Cavan Biggio Player Brayan Rocchio
1 Hits 2
2 RBI 0
1 HR 0
4 TB 2
.333 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Toronto 5 1 10 .161 7 13 3 1 0 0
Cleveland 5 0 5 .161 12 5 1 2 0 0