The Cleveland Guardians are going back to the top of the American League Central — and they made it look easy.
Cleveland beat the host Kansas City Royals 11-5 on Saturday night, and combined with the Colorado Rockies' 9-6 win over the Chicago White Sox, the Guardians locked up their third consecutive division title. At 85-76 and winners of nine of their last ten, Cleveland will take a bye into the AL Division Series as the No. 2 seed.
Home-run derby in Kansas City
Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio each homered twice, and Chase DeLauter also went deep in a 15-hit outburst. Nathaniel Lowe drove in four runs, while Steven Kwan and Travis Bazzana collected three hits apiece. Bailey tied the game in the second inning with a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole, and Rocchio's solo shot in the seventh stretched the lead to 7-3 before Cleveland piled on four more in the ninth.
The Royals (68-93) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first against Tanner Bibee (7-15), who then settled down to hold Kansas City scoreless over the rest of his six-inning outing. Jac Caglianone had a pair of RBI doubles for Kansas City, which has now lost 18 of its last 24.
White Sox locked into the wild card
The White Sox's loss to the Rockies eliminated them from the division race and locked Chicago (83-78) into the third AL wild card. Hunter Goodman homered twice for Colorado, surpassing 40 home runs on the season — the first National League catcher to reach the mark since 2003 — as the Rockies snapped a five-game skid.
Sources:
Guardians storm past Royals, clinch third straight AL Central title (Reuters)
Hunter Goodman hits 2 HRs as Rockies expel White Sox from AL Central race (Reuters)
Cleveland beat the host Kansas City Royals 11-5 on Saturday night, and combined with the Colorado Rockies' 9-6 win over the Chicago White Sox, the Guardians locked up their third consecutive division title. At 85-76 and winners of nine of their last ten, Cleveland will take a bye into the AL Division Series as the No. 2 seed.
Home-run derby in Kansas City
Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio each homered twice, and Chase DeLauter also went deep in a 15-hit outburst. Nathaniel Lowe drove in four runs, while Steven Kwan and Travis Bazzana collected three hits apiece. Bailey tied the game in the second inning with a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole, and Rocchio's solo shot in the seventh stretched the lead to 7-3 before Cleveland piled on four more in the ninth.
The Royals (68-93) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first against Tanner Bibee (7-15), who then settled down to hold Kansas City scoreless over the rest of his six-inning outing. Jac Caglianone had a pair of RBI doubles for Kansas City, which has now lost 18 of its last 24.
White Sox locked into the wild card
The White Sox's loss to the Rockies eliminated them from the division race and locked Chicago (83-78) into the third AL wild card. Hunter Goodman homered twice for Colorado, surpassing 40 home runs on the season — the first National League catcher to reach the mark since 2003 — as the Rockies snapped a five-game skid.
Sources:
Guardians storm past Royals, clinch third straight AL Central title (Reuters)
Hunter Goodman hits 2 HRs as Rockies expel White Sox from AL Central race (Reuters)