It’s amazing how much can change in a week’s time, but Guardians fans, after seeing Cleveland take 3 out of 4 from the Royals, are now Atlanta Braves fans as the Braves take on the Astros this weekend who are now tied with the Mariners for both the third wildcard spot and the AL West division lead.
The Astros are the preference as a team to chase because, due to a surprising July sweep of Houston, the Guardians have the tiebreaker over the trash-can-banging team on the Gulf Coast. Now, the Astros have matchups
against the Braves, Rangers and Mariners coming up. The Rangers are a problem, also, so I think it’d be nice to see the Astros get swept by the Braves and Mariners and win 2 of 3 against Texas. THEN, unfortunately, Houston finishes with the Angels and Athletics… but both teams do have some spunk to them and would happily play spoiler to the AL West bullies, I am sure. Is there a lot of hope? Absolutely not. Is there a glimmer? Sure.
The Guardians came back and beat Kansas City last night 3-2 behind a CJ Kayfus bomb, as Nick wrote about here. That bullpen was excellent again and aside from leaving a pitch over the middle of the plate to one of the only guys in the Royals lineup who can hurt you in the first inning, Gavin Williams was good. Huge to see him put a bad first inning behind him and dominate for the rest of his start. I still have a lot of questions on Kayfus hitting high velocity, but a 93 mph fastball down in the zone is right in his swet spot. There were some good quotes from CJ and from Matt Festa (owner of a 0.00 ERA since August 14th) after the game:
Our angel, Jose Ramirez, gave an interview in English about being a dad and it was adorable:
A couple good Zack Meisel pieces not to miss out today with this one on Joey Cantillo becoming the centerpiece of the Mike Clevinger trade and this one on CJ Kayfus’s big homer.
Travis Bazzana was pulled from the Clippers’ game last night, leading to rampant Twitter speculation that he’s getting called up to replace Gabriel Arias. I find this highly implausible. Unfortunately, my guess would be that his oblique was acting up, but I have no inside knowledge. We will see if anyone updates us on Bazzana tonight.
The Lake County Captains lost and finished a successful season, bowing out of the playoffs. But, the Lynchburg Hillcats won in a walk-off that has to be seen to be believed:
The Guardians will now entertain the Chicago White Sox for a three-game weekend series. The White Sox have been feisty of late and send a tough lefty to the mound for tonight’s opener. There won’t be any chance to take the foot off the gas if Cleveland wants to make a playoff push.
