The Cleveland Guardians earned their third consecutive American League playoff berth on Thursday with a 1-0 victory against the Boston Red Sox and enter a road series against the Kansas City Royals with their magic number to clinch the AL Central title at three.
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt has piloted each trip to the postseason over that stretch, and, on Thursday, he set the tone for the final weekend of the regular season in a clubhouse address after the victory over Boston.
“What we’ve been through this year, it’s every year,” Vogt said. “You go through ups and downs. You’ve got games you crush, games you don’t. Good stretches, bad stretches. But the fact of the matter is, we’re back in this thing, OK.
“We’ve still got a weekend’s worth of work to do. We know we’re not done. We’re going to be playing a lot of baseball.”
Cleveland (83-76) holds a one-game lead on the Chicago White Sox (82-77) atop the Central. Chicago clinched a spot in the playoffs with a victory in Kansas City earlier Thursday.
Still to sort out is which team — the Guardians or White Sox — will win the division and which will play in the wild-card round next week. The White Sox are home this weekend for three games against the Colorado Rockies, who have the worst record in the majors.
The Guardians edged the Red Sox on Thursday behind an Angel Martinez solo home run and five innings of one-hit bulk relief from Joey Cantillo.
“It’s special. Like I’ve said all year long, great group of young guys, unbelievable group of veterans,” Cleveland right fielder Chase DeLauter said. “We’re just learning to play ball together well.”
Kansas City and Cleveland have split the first 10 meetings between the clubs this season.
The Royals earned their most recent series victory at the Guardians’ expense, winning two of three games in Cleveland from Aug. 28-30. Now, Kansas City (68-91) will aim to play spoiler against Cleveland after losing a series to the White Sox to open a season-ending, six-game homestand.
Chicago scored the first eight runs Thursday en route to a 9-1 win in the series finale. The Royals collected seven hits, including two apiece from John Rave and Kyle Isbel.
Salvador Perez hit a solo homer leading off the fourth for Kansas City’s lone run. It marked Perez’s 20th homer, giving him at least that many for the sixth straight season and the 10th time in his career.
“Don’t count him out, right?” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I mean, he had a rough start to the year. You believe in the person and you believe in the player. Obviously, he’s got power to hit home runs. Interestingly enough, they threw him a ton of breaking balls, and he’s still ready to hit the fastball when he got it.”
Royals left-hander Noah Cameron (9-8, 3.92 ERA) will oppose Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.63) on Friday.
Named the AL Pitcher of the Month for August after going 4-0 with a 1.87 ERA in five starts, Cameron has remained effective in September, pitching to a 3.52 ERA in four no-decisions covering 23 innings. Two of those outings were quality starts.
Cameron allowed four runs and seven hits in his team’s 6-5 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday. He pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run, six-hit ball in a no-decision at Cleveland on April 7. The Royals lost 2-1.
Williams faced Cameron in that game and also took a no-decision, limiting the Royals to a Carter Jensen solo homer in 5 2/3 innings.
Williams lost at Kauffman Stadium on May 5, surrendering five runs and eight hits — including two home runs — in six innings. The Royals won 5-3.
He was dominant on Sunday in a 1-0 win against the visiting Athletics, striking out nine and giving up three hits in seven innings. Williams ranks second in the major leagues with 244 strikeouts, three behind Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski.
In all, Williams is 2-2 with a 2.83 ERA in 10 appearances (all starts) against the Royals, while Cameron is 1-1 with a 1.53 ERA in three games (all starts) against the Guardians.
–Field Level Media
