Surging Guardians looking to avoid letdown vs. Red Sox

Amid their stellar start to the season, the Cleveland Guardians have taken advantage of the injury-plagued Boston Red Sox.

Winners of five in a row, the Guardians aim for their fifth win in six games against the visiting Red Sox on Wednesday night.

At 17-6 with eight wins in the last nine games, Cleveland is off to its best start since 1999.

The Guardians, who have a major-league-best plus-55 run differential, have outscored the Red Sox 25-14 while going 4-1 vs. Boston, including a 4-1 victory in the opener of this three-game set.

"It's early, it's April, but we know that our preparation is going to continue to lead to putting us in position to win ballgames," Guardians outfielder Will Brennan said. "With our pitching and how our offense is, it's going to be tough to beat us."

Brennan had two hits Tuesday, and his leadoff double sparked a two-run seventh inning that gave Cleveland the lead. He is 4-for-13 against the Red Sox this season.

Teammate Jose Ramirez homered Tuesday and is batting .390 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in his last 10 home games vs. Boston.

Scheduled Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco (1-1, 3.44 ERA) finally earned a victory in his fourth start of the season, and it came against the Red Sox on Thursday. Lasting a season-high 5 2/3 innings, the veteran right-hander allowed two runs, three walks and four hits while striking out five during the 5-4 victory.

Boston's Wilyer Abreu had a double with an RBI against Carrasco last week. After playing 28 games to begin his major league career for the Red Sox last season, Abreu is 9-for-20 with two homers and six RBIs in his last five contests.

"There's a reason why we're talking about this kid," Boston manager Alex Cora said after Abreu hit one of those home runs Tuesday. "His approach is good."

Despite missing injured key contributors such as Trevor Story (shoulder), Triston Casas (rib), Garrett Whitlock (oblique), Lucas Giolito (elbow) and Nick Pivetta (elbow), Boston is two games above .500 and slated to get star Rafael Devers back Wednesday after he missed five games with a knee issue. Devers is batting just .188 this season and is 1-for-4 with a pair of walks vs. Carrasco during his career.

Boston teammate Rob Refsnyder is 1-for-5 against Carrasco. He recorded three hits Tuesday and is 7-for-16 with four doubles in five games since returning from a toe injury.

"We're just going to go out there and play with the 26 guys that we have, and we're going to try to win every single game," Red Sox reliever Justin Slaten said, according to the club's official website.

Cooper Criswell (0-1, 4.26) is scheduled to make his third appearance, and second start, since debuting for the Red Sox on April 13, when he allowed a two-run homer in four innings against the Los Angeles Angels. The right-hander's most recent outing came in 2 1/3 innings of relief Thursday, when he yielded four runs, but only one earned, against the Guardians.

Andres Gimenez and Josh Naylor each had run-scoring hits off Criswell in that contest.

—Field Level Media