The race for the third and final wild-card spot in the American League is narrowing, with both the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays moving back into contention.
The teams entered their four-game series in Tampa seeking a knockout punch but have split the first two games. The Rays won 4-2 on Thursday, and Jose Ramirez led the Guardians to a 7-1 rout on Friday.
On Saturday night, the Guardians (70-70) hope to translate that momentum into another win against the Rays (71-70).
Ramirez went 3-for-5 and reached a franchise milestone with two RBIs in the second inning as the Guardians tallied five times and gained a full game on the slumping Seattle Mariners, who are 1-6 on their road trip and hold the third wild-card spot.
Ramirez’s RBIs gave him 937 during his Cleveland career. That tied him with Jim Thome for second all-time and left him 147 behind franchise leader Earl Averill’s total of 1,084, which he accomplished from 1929-39.
Manager Stephen Vogt’s offense, which homered for the ninth consecutive game, has been light-hitting and ineffective most of the season, but the bats had a good showing for the third time in four games.
“I’ve been really happy with the guys’ at-bats,” Vogt said after the win pulled Cleveland within 2 1/2 games of Seattle. “We just have to continue to be locked in. … We’ve put up some big innings, and we’ve had a hard time adding on, (but) we did that tonight.”
Entering play Saturday, the Texas Rangers are a half-game back of Seattle, with the Kansas City Royals one game back, the Rays two games behind, and then the Guardians.
Before the series began, Vogt was still hopeful of a playoff berth, saying, “The beauty of this is no one is running away with that third wild-card spot.”
For the Guardians, Tanner Bibee (9-11, 4.77 ERA) will make his 28th start Saturday and will look to improve on an August that saw him go 2-2 in six starts with a 6.15 ERA. The right-hander allowed 16 walks, six home runs and 23 earned runs in 33 2/3 innings.
Bibee is 1-2 with a 4.74 ERA against the Rays over his three seasons.
Shane Baz (9-11, 4.98) showed off his best arsenal of pitches in his past two outings, and the Rays could use a repeat performance of him retiring 16 straight Cleveland batters nearly two weeks ago. Despite his quality start, he took a 3-0 loss.
Baz was overpowering Monday in the seven-game homestand’s opener with six scoreless innings in a 10-2 win over Seattle.
Rays manager Kevin Cash started Griffin Jax in an opener role Friday after the reliever struggled to close out the ninth inning Tuesday against the Mariners. Ian Seymour, who relieved him, could not get comfortable on a very humid night.
Seymour (3-1) suffered his first career loss after surrendering five runs (one earned), mainly due to his fielding error on a bunt to open the second inning.
Cash said Seymour pitching behind an opener was not the left-hander’s problem.
“He’s had more appearances out of the pen this year than starting, so no, I did not notice anything different,” Cash said.
Third baseman Junior Caminero continues to be on a tear for Tampa Bay. He recorded his 41st homer and 103rd RBI to account for his team’s lone run.
The All-Star is 10-for-21 (.476) with two home runs and nine RBIs in the team’s five games in September.
–Field Level Media
