Cleveland Guardians vs Pittsburgh Pirates Match Player Stats On Aug 20, 2020

Cleveland right-hander Shane Bieber continued his sparkling season, pitching six scoreless innings Thursday to help the visiting Indians complete a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 2-0 victory.

It was Cleveland's season-best sixth straight win.

Bieber not only improved to 5-0, but he also added another 11 strikeouts to his duffle bag full of them. The 25-year-old has 65 through six starts, with just six walks. That includes no walks Thursday.

The six hits he allowed were all singles. Of his 99 pitches, 66 were strikes.

Relievers Oliver Perez, Nick Wittgren, James Karinchak and Brad Hand (seventh save) completed the seven-hit shutout.

Beau Taylor hit an RBI single and Cleveland took advantage of a Pirates throwing error to add an insurance run. The Indians stranded 12 runners.

The Pirates have lost four straight and seven of eight.

Pittsburgh starter Trevor Williams (1-4), appearing in his 100th career game, pitched four innings, giving up one run and six hits, with two walks and five strikeouts.

Cleveland grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second. Franmil Reyes singled with one out and moved to second on Tyler Naquin's single. An out later, Taylor drove in Reyes with a base hit to center.

The Indians loaded the bases with one out in the fourth on a single and two walks, but Williams struck out Cesar Hernandez and got Jose Ramirez to pop out to left.

In the fourth, one of Bieber's strikeouts left Pittsburgh designated hitter Colin Moran unsettled. He disagreed with the called third strike, disagreed with the appeal that went against him and got ejected for the first time in his career.

In the eighth, the Indians loaded the bases against Chris Stratton with no outs on a walk to Reyes, a single by Naquin and a walk to Domingo Santana. Taylor hit a grounder, but first baseman Josh Bell's throw home pulled catcher Jacob Stallings off the plate, and Reyes was safe, making it 2-0.

--Field Level Media