BOSTON – (Wire Service Report) – The Cleveland Guardians are playing some of their best baseball of the season at the most important time, and they will attempt to extend a five-game winning streak when they visit the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.
Cleveland (81-75) has a one-game lead over the Chicago White Sox for first place in the American League Central standings with six games remaining. After playing three games at Boston, the Guardians will wrap up the regular season with a three-game road series against the Kansas City Royals.
The Guardians also have a three-game lead over the Texas Rangers, who are at the top of the American League West standings. Cleveland and Texas are among the teams battling for the AL’s No. 2 seed, which comes with a first-round bye.
“The feeling in the clubhouse is pretty awesome right now,” Cleveland closer Cade Smith said after he earned his 39th save in 44 opportunities when the Guardians beat the Athletics 1-0 Sunday. “We’ve got some momentum. We’ve got confidence in the way we’re playing. We’re playing clean baseball.
“There’s this kind of calm focus that we’re ready to go out there and play. We’re looking forward to taking it one game at a time and finishing strong and setting us up for the postseason.”
The Guardians went 10-20 in their first 30 games after the All-Star break and were a season-high five games under .500 (61-66) at that point but have gone 20-9 since then.
“One day at a time,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “We can only control today. Let’s go 1-0 every day and let’s worry about tomorrow, tomorrow, because here we are, one week to go, six games to go. We’re right in it and we have a great opportunity in front of us.”
Despite dropping a 5-1 decision to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, Boston (84-72) clinched a playoff spot when the Houston Astros lost to the Atlanta Braves. A postseason berth didn’t seem likely when the Red Sox had a 32-46 record on June 24.
“They didn’t take no for an answer,” said interim manager Chad Tracy, who took over a 10-17 team when he replaced Alex Cora on April 26. “When you work as hard as we have worked, it was almost July (before we got going), and to fight as hard as we did, to put ourselves in the position we did, I don’t think you care much how (the spot is clinched). You just want to see your ticket get punched.”
The Red Sox will almost certainly open the playoffs with a best-of-three wild-card series on the road against the New York Yankees. Boston and New York also met in the wild-card round last year, when the Yankees won the series in three games.
Boston also has six regular-season games remaining. After the three-game series against the Guardians, Boston will play three home games against the Chicago Cubs.
Tuesday’s pitching matchup features a pair of left-handers in Cleveland’s Parker Messick (12-9, 2.57 ERA) and Boston’s Payton Tolle (9-6, 3.02). Tolle was originally scheduled to pitch over the weekend against Tampa Bay, but had his start pushed back as Boston lines up its pitching for the postseason.
Messick doesn’t have a decision against Boston but has a 4.15 ERA in two career appearances (both starts). Tolle has not pitched against Cleveland during his career.
–Field Level Media