The Cleveland Guardians have shut the Minnesota Twins out for the past 21 innings, winning the second game of the doubleheader 8-0 tonight, to go to 84-71, in position to tie the Houston Astros for the third wildcard should the Mariners manage to hold on to defeat them. Also, the Rays and Red Sox are currently tied in the 7th and if the Rays win, the Red Sox will have an identical record to the Guardians (though, Boston holds the tiebreaker there).
You know the Guardians are serious when they destroy
Bailey Ober, who always has given them fits, and sweep a double-header, something they haven’t done since… I dunno… the Eisenhower administration? That’s how it felt entering tonight, at least. But, this team is absolutely clicking right now, so none of that mattered to this Guardians’ team.
Steven Kwan opened the scoring in the fifth by knocking in a pair (including newly arrived Petey Halpin who had reached with his first base hit)
The inning came up all Guardians from there, with RBI singles from Kyle Manzardo and CJ Kayfus, and a 2-RBI double from Gabriel Arias:
Petey Halpin AGAIN scored after a walk on another Steven Kwan single, as did Brayan Rocchio, in the 8th:
Logan Allen gave up four hits, one walk, no runs and struck out seven in eight innings. And, this Twins’ lineup is not bad, so, man, props to Logan Allen. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things this season, but nothing more than Logan Allen. His performance and the offensive explosion gave the Guardians a chance to use only two bullpen arms today – Kolby Allard in game one and Zak Kent in this game, throwing a scoreless 9th, striking out two just to add insult to injury to the Twins.
Words fail me. I grieved this season and here it is, back from the dead, and my emotions are not even prepared for the stress of the coming week of baseball and even the (quickly becoming less) remote potential of postseason baseball. But, one thing I do know… Guardians fans are great. They have put up with a lot of playoff heartbreak, seeing a lot of beloved players leave because of money, GuardsFest getting canceled, a team name and logo needing to be changed, and the city being obsessed, as a whole, with a terrible Browns’ team for the past two decades. They deserve something special and delightful. And this team, this incredible team, deserves rewarded for not giving up when they had plenty of reason to do so. I cannot wait to see how they wrap up the final seven games of this season, starting tomorrow. Go, Guardians!
