Guardians blow big lead, still nip Cubs

Josh Naylor chopped a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning and Jhonkensy Noel homered twice as the host Cleveland Guardians cooled off the surging Chicago Cubs 9-8 on Monday.

In a wild affair, Cleveland trailed 3-0 early, then rallied for an 8-3 lead, only to see the Cubs score five runs between the seventh and eighth innings to tie it.

In the bottom of the eighth, Jose Ramirez opened with a double off Chicago's Julian Merryweather (1-1), went to third on Will Brennan's pinch-hit single and scored when Naylor bounced the ball over drawn-in third baseman Isaac Paredes to put the Guardians back ahead.

Naylor also had a two-out RBI single earlier in the game for Cleveland's first run.

Noel clubbed a three-run homer off Cubs All-Star Shota Imanaga during a four-run fourth and Steven Kwan delivered a two-run shot to highlight a three-run fifth for Cleveland, which has won three straight after losing seven in a row.

Emmanuel Clase recorded his 36th save, his third in three days, to help halt the Cubs' four-game winning streak.

Ian Happ hit a two-run homer in the third off Cleveland starter Ben Lively, who lasted just 3 2/3 innings, and Pete Crow-Armstrong went deep against him in the fourth. However, Imanaga allowed seven runs -- three earned -- and seven hits over five innings as Chicago lost for just the third time in 11 games.

Imanaga struck out three and walked one. Lively yielded three runs on five hits and four walks with one strikeout.

Chicago trailed by five after six innings, then plated four runs against Cleveland relievers Tim Herrin and Scott Barlow in the seventh. The big blow was a three-run double to left field from Dansby Swanson that extended his hitting streak to seven games and made it an 8-7 contest.

In the top of the eighth, Happ drew a one-out walk from Peter Strzelecki, went to third on Patrick Wisdom's double into the left field corner off Nick Sandlin (7-0) and scored on Seiya Suzuki's sacrifice fly to center.

Noel, a rookie, raised his homer total to eight through 31 games. It was his first career multi-homer game.

--Field Level Media