Cleveland Guardians at Miami Marlins: Final Score & Recap

The Cleveland Guardians shut out the Miami Marlins 8-0 at loanDepot park on June 8, 2024, in a game that was never particularly close and grew increasingly lopsided as the innings wore on. The DiamondIQ model's estimate had Miami entering with just a 25% chance of winning at home, and that number collapsed to 0% by the final out. Cleveland scored in the first and third innings before exploding for six runs in the fifth, effectively turning a competitive early contest into a runaway. Roddery Muñoz absorbed the bulk of the damage for Miami, surrendering the key hits across multiple frames while the Guardians rolled up 12 hits against a Marlins staff that could find no answers.

The swing plays told a clear story about how Cleveland built its advantage. Steven Kwan's fifth-inning home run off Muñoz was the single biggest moment of the game, shifting win probability by plus 13.3 percentage points and punctuating what had already become a damaging frame. Earlier in the third, Andrés Giménez had delivered a double off Muñoz that added 9.2 percentage points of win probability, and Josh Naylor followed with a single worth another plus 7.1 points, though a David Fry double play in that same inning cost Cleveland 9.3 points and kept the damage temporarily limited. The fifth inning ultimately erased any residual doubt, with the six-run burst sealing Miami's fate.

Among the standout performers, Kwan led all batters with plus 16.7% WPA and a RE24 of plus 2.5, making him the clearest driver of the outcome at the plate. Giménez contributed plus 10.3% WPA despite a slightly negative RE24 of minus 0.2, and Josh Bell added plus 6.9% WPA. On the mound, Ben Lively was the model's top-rated pitcher on the day at plus 8.9% WPA, working through a Marlins lineup that managed only four hits and never threatened to score. The DiamondIQ model favors pitching-driven outcomes in games of this structure, and Lively's performance aligned precisely with that framework.