Guardians sweep Astros with back-to-back homers from Martínez and Ramírez

HOUSTON (AP) — José Ramírez homered for a third straight game, Angel Martínez also went deep and the Cleveland Guardians got a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep.

It’s the first time the Guardians, who entered the series on a 10-game skid, have won three in a row since a four-game winning streak from May 21-24.

Slade Cecconi (4-4) allowed five hits and two runs with a career-best nine strikeouts in 7-plus innings for the win. Paul Sewald pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.

Martínez homered for a second straight at-bat with his shot to the Crawford Boxes with one out in the first inning. His grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning Tuesday night lifted Cleveland to a 10-6 win.

Four pitches after Martinez's homer Wednesday, Ramírez also connected off Brandon Walter (1-2) to make it 2-0. Walter settled in after that, retiring the next 17 batters, with seven strikeouts before Bennett Sousa took over to start the seventh.

Ramírez and Carlos Santana hit consecutive singles with no outs in the inning before David Fry walked to load the bases. Johnathan Rodríguez then singled to score two and extend the lead to 4-0.

The Astros had managed just four singles when Taylor Trammell walked with no outs in the eighth and scored on a double by Mauricio Dubón that cut the lead to 4-1. There were two outs in the inning when Jose Altuve’s RBI double made it 4-2.

The AL West-leading Astros went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position to cap this disappointing series which came after they swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend.

Martínez and Ramírez had back-to-back homers in the first.

Ramírez, who dropped out of next week’s All-Star game Wednesday to rehab a nagging Achilles injury, has four homers and seven RBIs this month.

LHP Logan Allen (5-7, 4.07 ERA) will start for Cleveland in the opener of a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox Thursday night. The Astros are off Thursday and haven’t announced their rotation for their weekend series against the Rangers.

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Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Slade Cecconi throws against the Houston Astros during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Houston Astros starting pitcher Brandon Walter looks the outfield after giving up a home run to Cleveland Guardians' José Ramírez during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Cleveland Guardians' Angel Martínez celebrates after hitting a home run against the Houston Astros during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Cleveland Guardians' José Ramírez watches his home run against the Houston Astros during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Graham Ike scored 16 points as No. 7 Gonzaga overcame early shooting trouble to beat Loyola Marymount 82-47 on Sunday night for its ninth consecutive victory.

Mario Saint-Supery added 13 points and Jalen Warley 12 points for Gonzaga (16-1, 4-0 West Coast Conference), which was coming off an 80-72 overtime win over Seattle on Friday night, and had a slow start against the Lions.

Rodney Brown scored 11 points to lead Loyola Marymount (10-7, 1-3), which defeated Gonzaga in Spokane during the 2022-23 season. The Lions shot just 30% in the game, compared to 54% for Gonzaga.

Gonzaga's only loss this year was to No. 2 Michigan in Las Vegas.

The Bulldogs made the first basket of the game, then missed its next nine shots to fall behind 10-2. But Gonzaga went on a 12-0 run to take a 16-14 lead midway through the first.

Loyola Marymount was scoreless for more than eight minutes, missing 11 consecutive shots, before Brown's basket broke the drought. They tied the score at 19-19 on Nakyel Shelton's 3-pointer.

But Gonzaga scored the final 14 points of the first half to take a 33-19 lead at the break.

The Lions shot only 25 percent in the first half, sinking only two of their final 20 shots, while the Zags shot 41 percent in the first.

Gonzaga opened the second half by sinking three 3-pointers, two by Adam Miller, and ran out to a 46-23 lead. After Brown hit a pair of 3-pointers for the Lions, Gonzaga scored the next 21 points for a 67-29 lead.

Loyola Marymount hosts San Francisco on Thursday.

Gonzaga hosts Santa Clara on Thursday.

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Loyola Marymount guard Rodney Brown, left, Loyola Marymount forward Rokas Jocius (35) and Gonzaga forward Braden Huff (34) go after a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)