Gavin Williams struck out 10 in seven scoreless innings, outpitching World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and José Ramírez hit his first home run of the season to lead the Cleveland Guardians past the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 on Wednesday.
Gabriel Arias also went deep for the Guardians, who took two of three games in the series from the two-time defending champions.
Williams (1-1) walked three and allowed only two hits, both singles by Andy Pages. Freddie Freeman homered off Cade Smith with two outs in the ninth, spoiling Cleveland’s shutout bid.
Williams overpowered the Dodgers from the outset and faced just one batter more than the minimum through five innings. He ran into his only trouble in the sixth when Pages led off with a single and Alex Freeland worked a walk to bring Shohei Ohtani to the plate as the potential go-ahead run.
The 6-foot-6 right-hander induced a grounder from Ohtani on the first pitch for a 4-6-3 double play and got Kyle Tucker to fly out to end the inning.
Williams completed his night with a perfect seventh, punctuated by striking out Will Smith swinging on an elevated 96 mph fastball.
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