CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians’ hold on first place in the AL Central didn’t last long.
The Tigers moved back into a tie for the division lead with Thursday night’s 4-2 win over the Guardians at Progressive Field. The loss ended the Guardians’ five-game winning streak against Detroit that started last week at Comerica Park.
This sets a three-game sprint to win the division. The Guardians (86-73) finish the regular season with three games against Texas starting Friday night. The Tigers (86-74) travel to Fenway Park where they’ll play a Boston team still trying to clinch a wild card spot.
If the Guardians win more games than the Tigers over the weekend, the division is theirs. If they end in a tie, the division is theirs because they hold the tiebreaker with an 8-5 record in the season series.
Cleveland’s magic number to clinch stays at three.
The Guardians had a chance to clinch a spot in the postseason on Thursday, but it required a win over Detroit and a Houston loss to the Athletics. Both those possibilities backfired.
Detroit ended an eight-game losing streak with the win. For the Guardians, it was only their second loss in the last 13 games.
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The Tigers came into the game with a 23-16 record against left-handed starters, tied for the second-best winning percentage in the big leagues. They made sure to remind Parker Messick (3-1, 2.72) of that fact.
The Guardians’ rookie lefty had allowed just one homer in his first six starts, but the Tigers reached him for three homers to take a 4-1 lead after four innings.
Jahmai Jones started the game by driving a full-count pitch into the left field bleachers. Wenceel Perez one out later made it 2-0 with a homer to center on Messick’s 0-1 slider. Messick ended the the inning with two straight strikeouts, but the Tigers had found their footing.
They made it 3-0 in the second on Dillon Dingler’s one-out double and Javier Baez’s two-out single to right.
C.J. Kayfus put the Guardians on the board with an RBI double in the second to make it 3-1 against rookie right-hander Troy Melton. Gabriel Arias drew a one-out walk and moved to second on Angel Martinez’s ground out. Kayfus scored Arias when he yanked Melton’s first-pitch fastball into right field.
Messick, however, couldn’t keep the ball in the park.
The Guardians have done a good job taking the sting out of Riley Greene’s bat this season. He came into the game hitting .122 (5 for 41) with two of his 35 homers. But Messick left a first-pitch fastball over the middle of the plate to start the fourth and Greene hit it 411 feet into the right field seats for a 4-1 lead.
Messick kept the score at 4-1 as he pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth by striking out Greene, but he was done for the night. He allowed four runs on six hits in five innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
He was the first Cleveland starter in the last 20 games to allow more than two earned runs.
Matt Festa pitched out of another jam in the sixth by striking out pinch-hitter Kerry Carpenter to end the inning with runners on first and third after Baez singled off Brayan Rocchio’s glove at short.
Offensively, the Guardians couldn’t do much against Detroit’s bullpen game. Melton allowed one run in 3 2/3 innings. Brant Hurter (4-3), Tommy Kahnle, Tyler Holt, Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest followed Melton to the mound to stop the Guardians. Vest earned his 22nd save with a scoreless ninth.
Cleveland’s offense finally stirred in the eighth when Austin Hedges singled, took second on a ground ball and scored on Jose Ramirez’s double to left center to make it 4-2. Finnegan struck out Kyle Manzardo to end the threat.
Next
Texas visits Progressive Field for the final three games of the regular season starting Friday night. RHP Slade Cecconi (7-6, 4.15) starts for the Guardians, while RHP Jack Leiter starts for Texas at 7:10 p.m. CLEGuardians.TV, WTAM 1100, WMMS 100.7 FM, WARF and the Guardians radio network will carry the game.