Cleveland can punch a playoff ticket Thursday night at Fenway Park. They probably should have done it already.
The Red Sox handed the Guardians a 1-0 loss on Wednesday and snapped a six-game winning streak in the process. Cleveland managed five singles and could not push a single runner across.
Sonny Gray Shut the Door
Gray threw six shutout innings and the Guardians never threatened. That is the problem with this offense in a nutshell: it can grind, but when a good starter is on, there is no power to fall back on.
Foster Griffin deserved better. He gave up one run on 10 hits over six innings with seven strikeouts and no walks, which wins most games. It did not win this one.
Two Different Goals Here
Manager Stephen Vogt made a distinction that matters. Clinching a playoff berth and winning the AL Central are separate objectives, and Cleveland still controls its own destiny on both.
The Guardians hold a one-game lead over the White Sox with four games left. A berth guarantees October. The division decides how favorable the bracket looks.
Here is the catch that should keep Cleveland up at night: Chicago owns the head-to-head tiebreaker. A tie at the finish line does not go the Guardians’ way.
The White Sox Have Been the Story of September
Nobody had this race on their card in July. The White Sox have played themselves into a legitimate division fight and have refused to fold every time Cleveland has had a chance to bury them.
That is what makes the tiebreaker so dangerous. Chicago does not need to catch Cleveland by a game. They just need to draw even.
Four Games to Sort It Out
Cleveland gets another crack Thursday at 6:45 p.m. ET at Fenway. Win, and the playoff berth is secured and the pressure drops considerably.
Lose, and every remaining game becomes a coin flip with a tiebreaker stacked against them.
The Verdict
The Guardians should win this division. They have the lead, and their rotation keeps them in games even when the bats go quiet.
But they also just got shut out by a team already locked into the postseason, which is the kind of loss that tells you an offense is pressing. Cleveland does not need to hit home runs this week. They need one clean inning with runners on base.
Four games. One-game cushion. No tiebreaker. Somebody is going to blink.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.