The Guardians came through in a critical afternoon contest - not just to win this series, but to avoid a seven-game hole in the Central against the Minnesota Twins. Scoreless through seven innings against Twins' starter Sonny Gray, the Guardians scored all of their runs off of the bullpen with two outs across the final three.
Guardians' starter Tanner Bibee allowed just two hits through the first four innings, but allowed the Twins to load the bases in the fifth on a single and two walks. Then Twins' Jorge Polanco broke the scoreless tie on a two-run single, putting Minnesota ahead for their only runs of the day.
Meanwhile, the Guardians failed to score twice after a leadoff runner reached base earlier in the contest, but cashed in on the third. In the eighth inning Gabriel Arias doubled, then with two outs Steven Kwan delivered a two-out RBI single to cut the Twins' lead in half against reliever Griffin Jax.
In the ninth inning, Andres Gimenez and Will Brennan each reached with one out, and advanced on Gabriel Arias's ground out. Then with two outs closer Jhoan Duran threw a wild pitch, just behind Bo Naylor, that reached the backstop and allowed Gimenez to score the tying run. The Twins challenged whether the ball hit Naylor, which would have resulted in a dead-ball and force Gimenez to return to third base, but the call was upheld and the game tied at two, with more damage to come.
After reliver Trevor Stephan struck out the side in the ninth, the Guardians were in prime position to explode in the tenth. With ghost-runner Bo Naylor on base, and Jose Ramirez intentionally walked, Kole Calhoun blasted a home run into the second deck over the centerfield wall, putting the Guardians ahead 5-2 against reliever Emilio Pagan. Guardians' closer Emmanuel Clase retired the side for his 36th save, notching this road series and clinching a winning road trip after taking two out of three against the Toronto Blue Jays as well.
With this victory, the Guardians are five games behind the Twins in the AL Central, and lead the season series 6-4 with three matchups remaining at Progressive Field (September 4-6). In the meantime, the Guardians are off tomorrow and will host the Tampa Bay Rays for a three-game series beginning on Friday at 7:10 PM. The Guardians lost two of three games in Tampa earlier this month, but averaged 7.3 runs per game in the series (season average is 4.1). Cal Quantrill is scheduled to make his first start since July 5th after missing time with shoulder inflammation.