Clase sets club record for saves, Noel, Giménez hit consecutive HRs as Guardians top Pirates 10-8

CLEVELAND (AP) — Rookie Jhonkensy Noel hit a two-run homer and Andrés Giménez followed with a solo shot in the fifth inning, leading the Cleveland Guardians to a 10-8 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.

Emmanuel Clase became Cleveland's career saves leader, notching his 150th — and 40th this season — by working the ninth. Clase gave up a leadoff homer to Andrew McCutchen before getting three outs and passing Cody Allen on the club list.

Clase has a legitimate Cy Young case with a 0.71 ERA and by converting 27 straight save opportunities since May 20. He's allowed only five earned runs all season.

“What he’s done in the short spurt here is truly special,” said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. “I’m only here for five months of it. It's just remarkable.”

Noel's 450-foot blast off Carmen Mlodzinski (2-5) came after the Pirates had scored six in the fifth to take a 6-4 lead.

Josh Naylor added four RBIs for Cleveland, which extended its lead in the AL Central over Kansas City to 2 1/2 games and 3 1/2 ahead of Minnesota. The Guardians will visit the Royals for three games starting Monday.

Naylor had to be assisted from the field in the eighth after getting an RBI single. He appeared to turn his left ankle following his swing and hobbling down the line. Vogt said Naylor suffered only a bruise.

“He told me he wants to play tomorrow, in true Nails form,” Vogt said. “He’s going to be sore. He's going to be playing through some soreness, but Nails, the hockey player wants to play.”

After Naylor's RBI single in the fifth brought the Guardians within 6-5, Noel, the burly man nicknamed “Big Christmas,” sent an 0-1 pitch from Mlodzinski into the left-field bleachers at 111.2 mph for his 13th homer.

Noel joined Russell Branyan as the only Cleveland players to hit 13 homers in their first 45 games.

Giménez hit the next pitch into the right-field seats, and his first homer since June 20 — and 210 at-bats — gave Cleveland an 8-6 lead. He's batting .338 in his last 18 home games.

Oneil Cruz drove in three runs and Rowdy Tellez hit a two-run homer for the Pirates, whose bullpen let them down again. Pittsburgh was coming off a 14-10 loss on Wednesday, when the Chicago Cubs scored 11 runs in the last three innings.

“We gotta finish innings,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who was ejected in the fourth. "We gotta execute. We didn’t do that today. Our offense did a really good job. That’s a really good club over there.

"We were down 4-0, scored six runs in the fifth, had really good at-bats and then you get in a bullpen game with them it’s really challenging because their bullpen is really good.”

Tellez's 12th homer highlighted Pittsburgh's six-run fifth inning, when the Pirates tagged Guardians starter Ben Lively for the homer, two doubles and two singles.

Cruz and McCutchen each got two-run singles in the outburst.

PEN CHANGE

In the aftermath of the bullpen collapse against the Cubs, Shelton said David Bednar has been taken out of the closer's role.

Bednar was charged with his sixth blown save — and third in his last six chances — when he allowed five runs with three hits and two walks against Chicago. Pittsburgh led that game 10-3 in the seventh.

Shelton intends to implement a closer-by-committee approach for now.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Pirates: RHP Ben Heller (shoulder inflammation) was placed on the 15-day injured list. ... RHP Daulton Jefferies (right elbow inflammation) began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis. He's currently on the 60-day IL.

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb (broken fingernail) will likely be activated from the injured list and start Sunday's series finale. Vogt said barring a setback, the 36-year-old will make his third start for Cleveland, which acquired him in a trade from San Francisco on July 30.

UP NEXT

Pirates RHP Luis Ortiz (5-4, 3.36 ERA), who threw six scoreless innings in his last outing, will start against Guardians LHP Matt Boyd (1-0, 2.70).

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

Cleveland Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, left, congratulates relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase (48) after they defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in a baseball game Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Home plate umpire Brian Walsh shouts at Pirates manager Derek Shelton in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians' Lane Thomas, right, begins his slide to score behind Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Yasmani Grandal, left, in the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton, right, argues with home plate umpire Brian Walsh, left, after being ejected in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen doubles in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, left, and first baseman Josh Naylor (22) meet with starting pitcher Ben Lively, right, in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Oneil Cruz, right, begins his slide past Cleveland Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, left, to score in the fifth inning of a baseball game Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Rowdy Tellez is congratulated in the dugout following his home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Rowdy Tellez (44) is congratulated by teammate Andrew McCutchen, left, after hitting a home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Oneil Cruz slides safely across home plate to score in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Jared Triolo, left, reaches for sliding Cleveland Guardians' Andres Gimenez (0) at third base but can't make the tag as Gimenez is safe in the fourth inning of a baseball game Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians' Andres Gimenez celebrates as he runs the bases after hitting a home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians' Jhonkensy Noel, right, celebrates in front of Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Yasmani Grandal, left, after hitting a home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine made a new call Saturday on the West to allow it to strike deeper into Russia after a meeting between U.S. and British leaders a day earlier produced no visible shift in their policy on the use of long-range weapons.

The renewed appeal came as Kyiv said Russia launched more drone and artillery attacks into Ukraine overnight.

“Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields and military bases inside the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said Saturday. “Permission to strike deep into Russia will speed up the solution.”

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called on allies to greenlight the use of Western-provided long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. So far, the U.S. has allowed Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine.

Discussions on allowing long-range strikes were believed to be on the table when U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met in Washington on Friday but no decision was announced immediately.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pressing the U.S. and other allies to allow his forces to use Western weapons to target air bases and launch sites farther afield as Russia has stepped up assaults on Ukraine’s electricity grid and utilities before winter.

He did not directly comment on the meeting Saturday morning, but said that more than 70 Russian drones had been launched into Ukraine overnight. The Ukrainian air force later said that 76 Russian drones had been sighted, of which 72 were shot down.

“We need to boost our air defense and long-range capabilities to protect our people,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “We are working on this with all of Ukraine’s partners.”

Other overnight attacks saw one person killed by Russian artillery fire as energy infrastructure was targeted in Ukraine’s Sumy region. A 54-year-old driver was killed and seven more people were hospitalized, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said.

Another three people died Saturday in a Russian strike on an agricultural enterprise in the front-line town of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region, Gov. Ivan Fedorov said.

Meanwhile, officials in Moscow have continued to make public statements warning that long-range strikes would provoke further escalation between Russia and the West. The remarks are in line with the narrative the Kremlin has promoted since early in the war, accusing NATO countries of de-facto participation in the conflict and threatening a response.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency Tass on Saturday that the U.S. and British governments were pushing the conflict, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, toward “poorly controlled escalation.”

Biden on Friday brushed off similar comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said on Thursday that allowing long-range strikes “would mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries, are at war with Russia.”

Asked what he thought about Putin’s threat, Biden answered, “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”

Russian and Ukrainian officials also announced on Saturday a prisoner swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates. It included 206 prisoners on both sides, including Russians captured in Ukraine’s incursion in the Kursk region.

The swap is the eighth of its kind since the beginning of 2024, and puts the total number of POWs exchanged at 1,994. Previous exchanges were also brokered by the UAE.

Both sides released images of soldiers traveling to meet friends and family, with Zelenskyy commenting, “Our people are home."

Elsewhere, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 19 Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the country’s Kursk and Belgorod regions.

A woman also died Saturday after a Ukrainian shell hit her home in the border village of Bezlyudovka, Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A Ukrainian poses for a selfie as he is greeted after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainians pose for a photo after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainians pose for a photo after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainians pose for a photo after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

A Ukrainian reacts after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainians react after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

A Ukrainian serviceman, left, is greeted after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)