The Cleveland Guardians took care of business against the Minnesota Twins during a crucial portion of their schedule.
After dropping their one-off game against the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Guardians were staring straight in the face of a gauntlet of division games beginning Friday. Cleveland was scheduled to play the Minnesota Twins five times in four days including a doubleheader on Saturday. Any misstep over this stretch could result in the Guardians falling out of first place and potentially their playoff spot. Luckily the Guardiac Kids were up to the task and were not going to let a lesser Twins squad interfere with their postseason hopes.
Cleveland took four of five games outscoring Minnesota 27-14, the only loss being a shutout on Sunday following a 15-inning victory in the second game of a doubleheader the night before. While not an optimal result, this game does reside on the more acceptable end of the forgiveness meter. Bouncing back and putting a nail in the coffin that is the Twins season with Monday’s 11-4 win was the perfect way to end this series.
This set of games against Minnesota featured everything from the Guardians. Cleveland kicked things off with a comeback win featuring Ernie Clement doing his best Kenny Lofton impression. Clement scored from second on wild pitch in the bottom of the 8th to edge out Minnesota resulting in a crucial win.
The second game of the twin bill featured a 15 inning marathon with Amed Rosario coming to the rescue in the 13th prior to Austin Hedges scoring on an error to give Cleveland a hard earned victory.
The Guardians are now 80-67 on the season with a four game lead over the White Sox. Cleveland will now travel to Chicago as they attempt to deal the White Sox a similar blow that they gave the Twins. Taking the series in the Chicago would bring Cleveland one step closer to a division title in what has been an exciting yet unexpected seasons from the newly renamed Guardians.
