No baseballs were seriously harmed in the making of this victory.

The Cleveland Guardians did not rely on the long ball – or even a double off the wall – in scoring a 3-2 victory over the visiting Washington Nationals on Saturday afternoon.

Kyle Manzardo blooped a two-run single to left field, just out of reach of three Nationals fielders, in the first inning. Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor raced home to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.

Ramirez wasn’t finished motoring around the bases. Washington starter Mitchell Parker’s wild pitch scored Ramirez to increase Cleveland’s lead to 3-0 in the third.

Washington got two runs back in the fourth off Cleveland’s Ben Lively (5-2) on an RBI groundout by Joey Meneses and a run-scoring single by Jesse Winker.

CAN’T BEAT THE BULLPEN

Lively lasted into the sixth inning before turning the game over to the Guardians’ lights-out bullpen of Tim Herrin, Scott Barlow, Hunter Gaddis, and Emmanuel Clase.

Clase picked up his 18th save and lowered his ERA to a ridiculous 0.31.

Cleveland improved its record to 39-19, including the best home record in baseball (20-6).

The Guardians will try to sweep four out of five series when they host the Nats on Sunday at 1:40 p.m.

Carlos Carrasco (2-4) is coming off the injured list (Eli Morgan is going onto it) and will start for Cleveland against Jake Irvin (2-5).

Daniel Schneemann will make his major-league debut, starting at second base for Cleveland. The Guardians called him up and send outfielder Johnathan Rodriguez back to Columbus.