Guardians beat Angels 8-6, sit in third wild-card spot
A two-game sweep in Anaheim behind José Ramírez's five RBI has Cleveland at 67-66 and holding the American League's third wild-card spot heading into a home series with Kansas City.
Ramírez's three doubles close out Anaheim
Angels4-2Angels8-6Cleveland took both games of its set with the Angels, winning 4-2 on August 24 and 8-6 on August 25, and did it with José Ramírez carrying the lineup: he went 3-for-6 with three doubles, five RBI and a stolen base in the finale, and per @TalkinBaseball_, his two-run hit put the Guardians ahead in extra innings. Steven Kwan backed him up, going 5-for-5 with an RBI.
The bullpen split down the middle in that finale — Erik Sabrowski struck out three in a scoreless inning, while Gavin Williams was tagged for five earned runs on six hits in 1.1 innings. Cleveland won anyway, and the two wins push the club's active run to five straight, per its last5 mark of 5-0. Right fielder Chase DeLauter sat out Tuesday's win against the Angels with a hamstring issue, per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com.
Cleveland holds the third wild-card spot
| AL Wild Card | W | L | Pct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yankees | 74 | 57 | .565 | +8.0 |
 Red Sox | 73 | 59 | .553 | +6.5 |
 Guardians | 67 | 66 | .504 | — |
 Rangers | 66 | 67 | .496 | 1.0 |
 Orioles | 64 | 68 | .485 | 2.5 |
 Mariners | 64 | 69 | .481 | 3.0 |
 Twins | 64 | 69 | .481 | 3.0 |
 Blue Jays | 64 | 69 | .481 | 3.0 |
At 67-66, the Guardians currently occupy the third and final American League wild-card spot outright, with no games back of the cutoff. The New York Yankees (74-57) and Boston Red Sox (73-59) hold the first two spots, each already up 8.0 and 6.5 games on the field, but Cleveland's elimination number sits at 28 — the same as New York's — meaning the race for the field is still very much open.
The pursuit is bunched right behind them: the Texas Rangers (66-67) trail by a single game, and the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays are all within three games back. A five-game winning streak is the difference between holding a spot and chasing one in a field this tight, and Cleveland enters its next series with the Royals doing the former.
Upcoming
The Guardians are in Los Angeles this afternoon, with Joey Cantillo (9-7, 3.73 ERA) on the mound against Grayson Rodriguez (4-5, 6.41 ERA). Cantillo's last time out against Colorado on August 21 was a no-decision — 4.2 innings, one earned run, five strikeouts, but four walks on 89 pitches. Rodriguez, by contrast, was dominant in his last start against Houston on August 20, throwing seven scoreless innings with six strikeouts and just five hits allowed for the win. Slade Cecconi, sidelined since early August, began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Columbus on Tuesday.
The market favors Cleveland to win, and the total is read as middling — neither an obvious over nor under. That lines up with the two starters' recent form: Rodriguez's ERA says he's been hittable this season, but his last outing looked nothing like it, and if he repeats it, a middling total gets tested from the low side rather than the high one.