Sept. 14 – Left-hander Joey Cantillo should be brimming with confidence after the best start of his young major league career.
That could be crucial as he looks to help the Cleveland Guardians avoid a three-game losing streak and a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in their home series on Saturday night.
Since his debut on July 28, Cantillo (1-3, 5.96 ERA) has gone 0-3 with a 5.96 ERA in his first four MLB appearances over 8.47 starts, turning in one of the most memorable performances all season for the American League Central-leading Guardians.
Cantillo pitched 6 2/3 perfect innings on Monday before allowing a hit against the weak Chicago White Sox. When his night ended, he had allowed one more hit, allowed one run and struck out 10 while striking out four while pitching seven scoreless innings in Cleveland’s 5-3 victory.
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s special,” Guardians manager Stephan Vogt said.
Cantillo’s journey to the major leagues has been a back-and-forth journey between the minor leagues and the big club. However, earlier this week, things were starting to click and could set the stage for a strong finish, as Cantillo looks set to be a factor for the remainder of the regular season and possibly the playoffs for the Guardians.
“We know how important it is to win this, to win as a team,” he said.
“It’s just, understand where the fastball needs to go and make those adjustments and trust your receivers and do those things, and then attack and trust your stuff and attack them.”
Cleveland (84-64) scored a total of 16 points in its three-game sweep of Chicago. However, the Guardians lost the first two games of this four-game series to the Rays (73-75), allowing just three runs and nine total hits, while the Rays entered the series after starting the week with three games in Philadelphia, losing all of them.
The Guardians are 1-4 against the Rays this year, batting .174 but scoring just seven runs overall.
“Going into the season, we looked at the travel and knew those teams (Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cleveland) were going to be in the playoffs,” Tampa Bay’s Josh Lowe told the club’s official website.
“We’ve been playing baseball games lately.”
Logan Driscoll hit his first career home run with a two-run shot in the Rays’ 3-1 win on Friday. Jonathan Aranda, who also hit deep on Friday, is batting .318 with two homers, three doubles and three RBIs in six straight games.
Drew Rasmussen (0-1, 2.79 ERA) will start Saturday, according to Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash, in what could be another opener for the right-handed Battle role. Rasmussen, who made his debut Aug. 7 after elbow surgery, has made three starts in 11 games in 2024.
He has a 9.64 ERA in three career starts against Cleveland, but hasn’t done so since 2021.
Guardians star Jose Ramirez is 1-for-2 all time against Rasmussen. Ramirez extended his hitting streak to six games by hitting a double on Friday. However, he has hit only .182 in his last 11 regular season games against the Rays.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay’s Christopher Morrell could miss this game after sitting out Friday’s game with Achilles discomfort.
–Visual-level media
