CLEVELAND (AP) — Known for doing the little things it takes to win, a style they've embraced and branded as “Guards Ball,” the Guardians showed they can also swing big.
Kyle Manzardo homered twice and Cleveland connected for six home runs — its most in a home game since 2013 — while rolling to a 10-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
Click to Gallery
Cleveland Guardians' Chase DeLauter gestures as he runs the bases after hitting a home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Brayan Rocchio watches his home run in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Kyle Manzardo watches his home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Chase DeLauter is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Angel Martínez watches his home run in front of Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, left, in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
On the warmest day in 2026 at notoriously chilly Progressive Field, the Guardians became the third team to hit six homers in a game this season. They joined Boston and Washington, which also feasted on Cincinnati's shoddy pitching earlier this week.
José Ramírez, Angel Martinez and rookie Chase DeLauter each clubbed a two-run homer and Brayan Rocchio added a solo shot in the power surge. It was Cleveland's first six-homer game since Aug. 15, 2019, at Yankee Stadium, where the short porch in right field invites players to take bigger hacks.
The two-time defending AL Central champions have won despite a lack of pop in their lineup in recent years, but their identity could be changing.
“We’re young and a lot of people don’t get into their power until 25-28, and we’re starting to get into those age ranges for a lot of our guys,” third-year manager Stephen Vogt said. “As you get older, you learn when to take shots. You learn how to attack certain pitches. I don’t know if we’re going to be a 250-home run team, I doubt it. But it was nice to see the ball fly out of here.”
The six homers helped the Guardians become the first team since Toronto in 2018 to score 10 runs without a hit with runners in scoring position. It's only been done nine times since RISP started being tracked in 1974.
Who needs a clutch base hit when they all go over the wall?
“That's the idea,” said a smiling Manzardo, who had his fourth career multi-homer game.
Manzardo's two-run homer in the third came shortly after the first baseman's fielding gaffe when he failed to catch a foul pop hit by Cincinnati's Matt McLain. Manzardo couldn't locate the ball, and it didn't help that he forgot to put on sunglasses he had perched on the brim of his cap.
“Not a good look,” he quipped.
Manzardo said the mistake motivated him and he added a solo homer in the fifth to put the Guardians ahead 6-2.
Manzardo agreed with Vogt's assessment that the Guardians might be growing into a team that can flex its muscles. Martinez, who hit 11 homers last season and has four in his last five games, already has nine this year to lead Cleveland.
“Yeah, we’ve got a lot of guys who haven’t necessarily done it for a super long time," he said. "But a lot have gotten these big league reps and you’re seeing different guys kind of blossom into who they are, which is really cool.”
Speaking of cool, for one of the first times all season, the Guardians didn't have to also contend with Cleveland's fickle weather. The game-time temperature of 79 degrees was the warmest this season at Progressive Field, which plays much differently when the wind isn't blowing in off Lake Erie.
“The ball really flies here when it’s warm out,” Manzardo said. "When it’s a little bit cooler, you’re going to have a tricky time.”
Manzardo has played in Cleveland long enough to know that when it gets warmer, bats begin heating up as well.
“You show up knowing you can hit the ball in the air and have that confidence that it’s going to travel,” he said. "I don’t check the weather in Cleveland. Stuff pops up here all the time.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Cleveland Guardians' Chase DeLauter gestures as he runs the bases after hitting a home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Brayan Rocchio watches his home run in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Kyle Manzardo watches his home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Chase DeLauter is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Guardians' Angel Martínez watches his home run in front of Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, left, in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds in Cleveland, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — This is not a one-of-a-kind matchup in the Western Conference finals. And it's not the NBA Finals, either.
It may just seem that way.
In one corner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, winners of 64 games this season. In the other corner, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, winners of 62 games this season — and four against the Thunder. That's the West finals matchup, with Game 1 on Monday in Oklahoma City.
“Just the words — ‘conference finals’ — is crazy,” Wembanyama said. “It’s something I heard my whole life and now being in it is just special.”
This is only the seventh time in NBA history that a playoff series features two teams that won 62 games (or had an equivalent winning percentage of .756 or better, when taking into account the years without an 82-game schedule). It's the first since Chicago vs. Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals.
The others: Chicago-Utah in the 1997 finals, Chicago-Seattle in the 1996 finals, Boston-Los Angeles Lakers in the 1985 finals, Boston-Philadelphia in the 1981 Eastern Conference finals and Lakers-Milwaukee in the 1972 West finals.
The first four such matchups obviously decided the NBA champion for that season, because those were all in the finals. The two previous conference finals showdowns between teams with records this good ultimately led to championships as well, with the Celtics taking the title in 1981 and the Lakers in 1972.
“It’s fitting because both teams earned their way here," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Sunday. "I mean, that’s how it works. You've got to win four games to advance and then you've got to win four games again — and if you do that, you’re in the Western Conference finals. And that’s what makes it fitting. It is a team we have a ton of respect for. We know what they’re capable of. It’s an opponent that is incredibly worthy and that we’re going to need to be our best to beat and we understand that.”
It's the first playoff matchup between the clubs since 2016, when the Thunder beat the Spurs in six games in the Western Conference semifinals. Only five players from that series — Kevin Durant, Steven Adams, Russell Westbrook, Kyle Anderson and Kawhi Leonard — remain in the NBA and none are still with either the Thunder or the Spurs.
The Spurs went 4-1 against the Thunder this season, winning three of those games by 10 or more points. The rest of the league has a combined six such wins over Oklahoma City this season.
“You could take a bit from it,” Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox said. “But the playoffs is a different story, obviously.”
The Thunder may get a big piece of their lineup back for Game 1. Guard Jalen Williams, who has been out for nearly a month with a left hamstring injury, was not on Oklahoma City's initial injury report filed Sunday afternoon — a sign that he should be available for the series opener.
The Thunder have a huge edge when it comes to having experience this deep into the playoffs.
Only five current Spurs have scored in a conference finals or an NBA Finals game — and since the postseason started only one of those five, Luke Kornet, is averaging more than 10 minutes per contest. Harrison Barnes is playing 9.8 minutes per game and the remaining three Spurs of Kelly Olynyk, Mason Plumlee and Bismack Biyombo aren't in the regular rotation.
But the Thunder have 12 players who have scored in Rounds 3 or 4 of the playoffs, most of that coming on the run to last season's title.
Going back to Game 7 of last season's playoffs, the Thunder have won nine consecutive playoff games — they're 8-0 this season.
A victory on Monday would make this Oklahoma City club the 11th team in NBA history to have a 10-game postseason winning streak. The Thunder could also become the eighth team to begin a postseason run with a 9-0 record.
“Everything that we’ve done so far is behind us,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We still haven’t reached our goal. We have two more series to win until we reach our ultimate goal and that’s what we’re focusing on.”
The Thunder were supposed to be here: defending champions, whole team back, the heavy preseason favorites to win this season's title.
The Spurs, well, were not.
Oddsmakers had San Antonio's predicted win total for the season at 44.5. And with championship odds of 66-1, San Antonio had the 17th-best odds in a 30-team league coming into the season.
Here the Spurs are, in the NBA's final four. And that would suggest they're ahead of schedule.
“Ahead of schedule what?” asked Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. “I understand the general expectations of what we were supposed to do in October aren’t necessarily aligned with where we’re at right now. So, if that’s your question, I would guess by general consensus then we're ahead of that schedule. But we never talked about what we were going to be or what we were going to do. We just knew that we had a lot of potential and we were going to try to be the best team we can be.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson watches from the bench during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault gestures during the second half of Game 4 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Los Angeles Lakers, Monday, May 11, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jared McCain, second from right, passes the ball as guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, center Isaiah Hartenstein, second from left, Los Angeles Lakers center Deandre Ayton, center, and guard Marcus Smart, right, watch during the first half of Game 4 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Monday, May 11, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, middle, shoots over Minnesota Timberwolves guards Ayo Dosunmu (13), top, and Anthony Edwards (5), bottom, during the first half of Game 6 of a NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
