Steven Kwan, Jhonkensy Noel hit solo homers in Guardians' 5-4 victory over the Giants

CLEVELAND (AP) — Major league batting leader Steven Kwan hit a solo homer and scored twice, Jhonkensy Noel homered and drove in two runs and the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians beat the San Francisco Giants 5-4 on Saturday.

The Guardians have the best home record in baseball at 29-11 — winning 18 of their last 23 at Progressive Field — and moved past Baltimore into first in the AL.

“There is a really common theme with the guys here,” Noel said through translator Agustin Rivero. “We play to win because we want to win.”

Kwan, who will start in the outfield at the All-Star Game, went 2 for 4 to raise his average to .365. He extended his interleague hitting streak to 11 games and is batting .413 against National League foes.

Noel homered for the third time in eight games since making his major league debut June 26. His towering solo shot to left off Luke Jackson pushed Cleveland’s lead to 5-3 in the sixth inning.

“I know myself, I’m a power hitter,” Noel said. “I know pitchers are going to attack me, so I have to be very disciplined, very patient and very do my best.”

Pedro Avila (3-1) was awarded the win for 1 1/3 innings of one-run relief. Emmanuel Clase walked Matt Chapman in the ninth before wrapping it up for his AL-high 26th save.

Tyler Fitzgerald delivered a two-run single, Michael Conforto had an RBI double and Chapman scored on a double-steal for San Francisco. The Giants have won eight of their last 12, but failed to reach .500 for the first time since May 31.

Fitzgerald provided the big hit in the Giants’ three-run fifth, then stole second, which prompted Chapman to try to beat the return throw to the plate. It was San Francisco’s first theft of home in seven years.

“I actually wasn’t supposed to go there, but I saw (catcher Bo Naylor) throw to second and took off,” Chapman said. “Cleveland has got some good guys on the mound, so you’ve got to take a chance in a situation like that.”

Conforto’s double pulled the Giants to 5-4 in the seventh, giving him 10 RBIs and eight extra-base hits in a 12-game stretch.

Kyle Harrison (4-4), activated for his first start since June 10, went 3 1/3 innings and gave up four runs. The left-hander was on the injured list with a sprained right ankle.

Guardians left-hander Logan Allen struck out a season-high nine in 4 1/3 innings, allowing two runs.

“I’m a competitor because I always think I can get through the fifth, but I’m kind of happy with the way things turned out,” Allen said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Giants: RHP Alex Cobb (right shoulder soreness) struck out five over two scoreless innings in his second rehab appearance for Single-A San Jose on Friday. Manager Bob Melvin said Cobb told him that he “felt fine” when they spoke Saturday morning.

Guardians: LHP Matthew Boyd (Tommy John surgery) threw a two-inning simulated game at Progressive Field before the gates opened, reaching 91-93 mph on his fastball. Recent signee Boyd is expected to make his Cleveland debut in August.

UP NEXT

Giants RHP Hayden Birdsong (1-0, 4.66 ERA) faces Guardians RHP Carlos Carrasco (3-6, 5.21 ERA) on Sunday in the series finale. Birdsong makes his third big league start since being recalled from Triple-A Sacramento.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

San Francisco Giants' Jorge Soler walks back to the dugout after striking out against Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Hunter Gaddis during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor, left, congratulates closer Emmanuel Clase after the third out in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, left, takes the ball from starter Logan Allen during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

San Francisco Giants' Tyler Fitzgerald heads to first base with an RBI single off Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Scott Barlow during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

San Francisco Giants' Brett Wisely throws out Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Luke Jackson (77) reacts as Cleveland Guardians' Jhonkensy Noel, rear, rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Cleveland Guardians' catcher Bo Naylor, left, misses the throw as San Francisco Giants' Matt Chapman slides safely into home plate during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

San Francisco Giants' Brett Wisely (0) forces out Cleveland Guardians' Angel Martinez, left, at second base during the second inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

San Francisco Giants' Jorge Soler slides safely into second base for a double as Cleveland Guardians' Brayan Rocchio waits for the throw as umpire Alan Porter watches the play during the first inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Logan Allen delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Cleveland Guardians' Jhonkensy Noel reacts after hitting a solo home run off San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Luke Jackson during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family, the militant group said Saturday. The early morning strike came a day after another Israeli airstrike cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.

Israel began a ground incursion Tuesday into Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Here is the latest:

BEIRUT — A Syrian opposition war monitor and pro-government media are reporting that an Israeli drone strike on a car in central Syria killed one person and wounded three.

It was not immediately clear who was the target of Saturday’s airstrike near the central city of Hama, which was reported by the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and pro-government Sham FM radio. They did not give further details.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel regularly carries out airstrikes inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria but rarely acknowledges them. When it has, it says it targets Iranian-backed groups or Hezbollah weapons shipments.

BEIRUT — Nearly 375,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria, fleeing Israeli bombardment, in less than two weeks, Lebanese officials said.

The government's crisis management unit, citing figures from Lebanese General Security, said 374,621 people — Lebanese citizens and Syrians living in Lebanon — have crossed into Syria since Sept. 23, when Israel intensified its air bombardment campaign in Lebanon.

Thousands have continued to cross on foot through the main Masnaa Border Crossing even after Israeli airstrikes cut off the road leading up to it on Thursday.

Associated Press journalists on Saturday saw a nonstop stream of people walking through a huge crater created by the airstrike to waiting buses on the other side.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian President Bashar Assad praised Iran for firing nearly 200 missiles at Israel earlier this week saying it was a message to Israel that Tehran and its allies “can deter the enemy.”

Assad spoke during a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday. In comments carried by state media, Assad said that “resisting occupation, aggression and mass killings is a legitimate right.”

Assad said the Iran-led alliance known as Axis of Resistance will remain strong because of the backing of its people.

Syrian state media said Assad and Araghchi discussed ending Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

Iran has been a main backer of Assad since Syria’s civil war began in March 2011.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said on Saturday its special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries’ shared border. On Tuesday, Israel launched what it calls a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon.

Nine Israeli troops have been killed in close fighting in the area in the past few days, which is saturated with arms and explosives, the military said.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon have hit civilian areas and infrastructure including hospitals and paramedics.

BEIRUT — Beirut’s southern suburbs was hit by 12 Israeli airstrikes early Saturday, including one that badly damaged a large hall Hezbollah has used to hold ceremonies, Lebanon’s state news agency said.

Later in the day, more strikes hit the area, from which tens of thousands of people have fled over the past two weeks.

Israeli airstrikes also hit areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, according to state media. At least six people were killed, according to NNA.

CAIRO — Palestinian medical officials say Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza early Saturday have killed at least nine people, including two children.

One strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency service.

Another strike hit a house in the northern part of Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, the Awda hospital said. The strike also left a number of wounded people, it said.

The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment on the strikes, but has long accused Hamas of operating from within civilian areas.

Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the almost year-long war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.

CAIRO — The Israeli military on Saturday warned residents in parts of central Gaza to evacuate, saying its forces will soon operate there in response to Palestinian militants.

The warnings cover areas along a strategic corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a ceasefire deal earlier this summer. The military warned Palestinians in areas of Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, located along the Netzarim corridor, to evacuate to an along Gaza's shore called Muwasi, which the military has designated a humanitarian zone. It’s unclear how many Palestinians are currently living in the areas affected by the order, parts of which were evacuated previously.

Less than an hour after the evacuation order, Palestinians reported Israel’s artillery shelling and smoke bombing in the northern areas of Nuseirat camp. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they fought earlier battles against Hamas and other militants since the start of the war one year ago.

The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced in the war, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps.

Others have remained in their homes despite being ordered to leave, saying nowhere in the isolated coastal territory feels safe.

BEIRUT — An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed a Hamas official and his family, the militant group said Saturday.

Hamas said in a statement that the early Saturday strike on the Beddawi refugee camp struck the home of Saeed Atallah Ali, an official with Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Ali’s wife, Shaymaa Azzam, and their two daughters, Zeinab and Fatima — whom the statement described as children — were also killed in the attack.

Beddawi camp is near the northern city of Tripoli. It was the first such strike on the camp in the recent conflict.

Israel has killed several Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023.

SEOUL, South Korea — A military plane evacuating 97 people from Lebanon arrived in South Korea on Saturday.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the group on the plane includes South Korean nationals and their family members. There are about 30 South Koreans left in Lebanon besides diplomats and embassy workers who are staying.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed officials Wednesday to send military aircraft to conflict areas in the Middle East as he called a meeting to discuss the impact of the intensified fighting in the region. There are about 480 South Korean nationals living in Israel and 110 in Iran.

Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians and against the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, at Mirgund north village of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

South Korean nationals and their family members arrive after being evacuated from Lebanon with a South Korea's military aircraft at the Seoul airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP)

Draped in the Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags, mourners take the last look at the bodies of 18 Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike during their funeral in Tulkarem, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians and against the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, at Mirgund north village of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)