Gavin Williams put on a pitching clinic Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field, but the Cleveland Guardians still walked away empty-handed in a frustrating 3-1, 12-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins.
Williams dominated for seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, walking nobody, and punching out 11. The highlight came in the fourth when he struck out the side on nine straight strikes — Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers, and Josh Bell — for an immaculate inning, just the fifth in franchise history and the first since 2022.
It marked his third straight start with exactly 11 strikeouts. Catcher Patrick Bailey provided the only offense with a solo homer in the fifth, a 420-foot shot that gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead.
The Twins finally broke through in the eighth. After Williams exited, the Guardians bullpen walked two before a pinch-hit RBI single tied the game. Neither side scored again until the 12th, when Trevor Larnach and Luke Keaschall delivered two-out RBI singles off Erik Sabrowski to push across the go-ahead and insurance runs.
Minnesota starter Taj Bradley matched Williams nearly pitch-for-pitch with seven strong innings of his own. The Guardians went 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position and got almost nothing from the middle and bottom of the order.
Why It Stung
Williams was dealing at an elite level and still took a no-decision as Cleveland dropped the series finale and split the four-game set. Manager Stephen Vogt called the outing as good as they've seen from him all year, but the bats simply never showed up when it mattered.
Fan Pulse
Guardians fans lit up over the immaculate inning and the pure stuff Williams showed, calling it electric and historic. The excitement quickly turned to familiar frustration as another strong start went to waste in extras. Twins supporters celebrated the gritty late rally and series split on the road.
Williams later admitted he didn't even realize he'd thrown the immaculate inning until the celebration started around him. Pure dominance met zero run support — baseball in a nutshell.