After beating the Kansas City Royals 11-5 on Saturday and taking advantage of the Chicago White Sox’s loss at the hands of the Colorado Rockies, the Cleveland Guardians finally earned their third consecutive AL Central title. Tanner Bibee overcame a rocky first inning and guided his team with a quality start, and Brayan Rocchio and Patrick Bailey hit two homers each to seal the win.
Bibee (7-15) allowed three runs in the opening frame, but bounced back to toss five scoreless innings after that. In six frames, he surrendered seven hits and walked one, striking out six en route to the victory.
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The Guardians are now 85-76, two full games ahead of the White Sox with one game left for both squads. Cleveland has automatically advanced to the Division Series and will enjoy home-field advantage there.
Now, the Guardians will have the luxury of resting Parker Messick, one of their most important pieces for what’s coming, on Sunday if they want. Had they been unable to secure the AL Central crown on Saturday, the lefty would have been used in the regular-season finale to try to lock it up.
Fans started to lose their mind in the first inning after Bibee gifted the Royals a 3-0 lead. A throwing error by Bailey enabled Carter Jensen to score, but Bibee had given up a double and a single to start the game.
Jac Caglianone then doubled and brought in Bobby Witt Jr. to double the lead, and Michael Massey hit a two-out RBI single that plated Caglianone. Just like that, Kansas City was up 3-0.
Resilience, however, is Cleveland’s middle name. Jo Adell scored on a sac fly by Nathaniel Lowe in the second inning, and then Bailey came through with a game-tying, two-run home run that drove in Travis Bazzana. After that, a Steven Kwan triple plated Rocchio and gave the Guardians a shocking lead.
Chase DeLauter’s 16th homer of the year gave the Guardians a 5-3 lead in the third. Cleveland wouldn’t score again until the sixth, when Bazzana led off with a triple and scored on another sac fly by Lowe.
Rocchio’s 14th long ball of the year made it a 7-3 game in the top of the seventh. The home club would attack again in the bottom of the eighth against Craig Yoho, though. Caglianone drove in Witt with a double, and Vinnie Pasquantino made it a two-run game with an RBI single. At that point, manager Stephen Vogt opted to bring in his closer, Cade Smith, to solve the issue.
Smith retired the next two hitters to end the inning, and his offense gave him the chance to rest in the ninth. In that frame, Cleveland benefited from back-to-back solo blasts from Bailey and Rocchio, the second of the game for both of them. A few batters later, Lowe delivered a two-run single that made it an 11-5 game.
Lowe had a single hit, but drove in four runs. Bailey scored two and drove in three, while Rocchio crossed home three times and had two RBI. Kwan and Bazzana each racked up three hits. Shawn Armstrong, Cade Smith, and Slade Cecconi each had scoreless appearances to support Bibee.
Cleveland will wrap up the regular season with an afternoon game against the Royals, starting at 3:10 pm ET.
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