Lane Thomas and José Ramírez hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning, and rookie Joey Cantillo pitched five scoreless innings as the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 on Saturday night.
The Guardians stayed three games ahead of second-place Kansas City in their division with 13 games left to play. Cleveland has the best home record in the AL at 44-27 and is 85-64 overall, ranking second in the league behind the New York Yankees.
Cantillo (2-3) allowed three hits, walked one batter, and struck out six in just his second start at Progressive Field. The left-hander threw 6 2/3 perfect innings and achieved a career-high seven strikeouts in earning his first win on Monday at the White Sox.
“Every game, you’ve obviously got to do different things, but it comes down to executing your pitches,” Cantillo said. “I was just glad to throw in front of the home crowd, honestly. It’s been about a month since I’ve done that, so it was a lot of fun.”
Thomas and Ramírez hit solo homers off Hunter Bigge. They each scored two runs, and cleanup hitter Josh Naylor had a two-RBI single in the sixth inning that increased the Guardians’ lead to 4-0.
Naylor’s single through a drawn-in infield sparked a three-run inning against Tyler Alexander (6-5). David Fry added a sacrifice fly to score Ramírez, who had been intentionally walked for a franchise-record 88th time.
“Some of our aggressive at-bats today worked out and we scored a lot of runs out of it,” said center fielder Thomas, who also threw out Josh Lowe at home in the fifth inning. “You’ve just got to go have fun out there. It’s a fun game.”
Junior Caminero had a career-high three doubles for the Rays, driving in their only run in the eighth inning. Tampa Bay is 5 1/2 games behind the final AL wild-card spot after Minnesota’s 11-1 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday, and fell to 4-5 on a 10-game trip through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cleveland.
