September 10 – The Cleveland Guardians showed their depth and toughness by finishing on top of the American League Central Conference.
Catcher Beau Naylor is working to add more of the latter as Cleveland aims to consistently stay at the top of the division.
Naylor enters Cleveland’s Tuesday road game against the Chicago White Sox with renewed confidence. After going hitless in nine previous at-bats, he added two hits, including a solo homer, in a 5-3 win in Monday’s series opener.
“I try to do whatever I can to help the team offensively, so it’s always good to stick to your vision and execute on it,” he said.
Cleveland (82-62) extended its division lead over the Kansas City Royals to 3 1/2 games, while Chicago (33-112) lost its 13th consecutive home game.
Naylor and his brother Josh added two hits each. David Fry also had a solo shot for the Guardians.
Chicago batters struck out 14 times and Cleveland took a 6–5 lead with two games remaining in the season series. White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi broke up Joey Cantillo’s perfect outing with a single in the seventh inning. Brian Ramos hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning, the first home run of his career.
Right-hander Ben Lively aims to lead the Guardians to a series win on Tuesday.
Lively (11-9, 4.07 ERA) was initially scheduled to start Monday. He has struggled in his last six starts, going 1-3 with a 6.37 ERA while allowing 13 walk-offs in 29 2/3 innings.
Lively has pitched 135 innings this season, far more than his previous career high of 88 2/3. He allowed four runs and seven hits in four innings of work in Wednesday’s loss to Kansas City, including a four-base hit and three strikeouts.
“Thinking about getting better,” Lively said, “that’s what motivates me after a game like this…. There’s only one way to fix it, and that’s to get back out there and do it.”
Chicago can prove it is improving. The White Sox must win 10 of their remaining 17 games to avoid tying the 1962 New York Mets for the most single-season losses in modern baseball history (120 games).
“Even though we’ve struggled a little bit lately, we want to go out there and compete and try to win every game,” White Sox outfielder Dominic Fletcher said.
Rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon will get the call from Chicago on Tuesday. Cannon (3-9, 4.53 ERA) will try to win back-to-back starts for the first time in his career after Wednesday’s victory at Baltimore, when he allowed one run and five hits in 5 2/3 innings.
“We’ve talked about bad counts and falling behind the last couple of starts,” Cannon said.
The Cannons didn’t face the Guardians in their first season.
Lively has a 1-1 record with a 4.63 ERA in 11 2/3 innings in two career starts against the White Sox, both coming this season. Lively avenged a May 9 road loss to Chicago with a home win on July 4, when he allowed three runs and three hits in six innings.
–Visual-level media
