CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Guardians couldn’t have asked for a better situation. They’d been held to two monster home runs by Josh Naylor over nine innings, but they still found themselves in extra innings.
Extra innings is a good place to be for the Guardians. On Wednesday night, they entered extras with an 8-3 record in overtime baseball, including a 5-2 mark at Progressive Field.
Those numbers rang true as the Guardians overcame a 4-2 deficit to beat the Twins, 5-4, in 10 innings. Brayan Rocchio drove in the game-winning run with a single into right field to reduce their magic number to clinch the AL Central to five.
Before Rocchio won it, Kyle Manzardo and Will Brennan had pulled the Guardians into a 4-4 tie with singles off Ronny Henriquez. Manzardo’s leadoff single scored Josh Naylor from second. Brennan’s pinch-hit single scored pinch-runner Myles Straw.
The Twins, trying to hold on to last wild card spot in the in the AL, took a 4-2 lead in the top of the 10th against Hunter Gaddis (5-3).
Pinch-hitter Royce Lewis sent a routine grounder to José Ramírez at third. Manuel Margot, the automatic runner, broke from second, but stopped and headed back to second base. Ramírez instead of taking the out at first, threw to second, but Margot beat the his throw.
Gaddis hit Willi Castro to load the bases before striking out Matt Wallner. Carlos Correa put the Twins in front with a two-run single to center. Gaddis ended the inning when Carlos Santana grounded into a double play.
Until bonus baseball broke out, most of the night featured a pitching duel between Tanner Bibee and Bailey Obert.
The Twins took a 1-0 in the first.
Castro, who iced Tuesday’s 4-1 win with a two-run homer off Nick Sandlin in the eighth inning, opened the game with a double to the wall in left center on Bibee’s first pitch of the night.
Wallner followed with a slow-rolling single to third that sent Castro to third. Correa sent a high chopper to short that Rocchio tried to field on the short hop, but failed.
Castro scored on Rocchio’s error.
Josh Naylor tied the score with a 445-foot homer to start the second against Ober. Naylor hit Ober’s first pitch, a fastball, for his 30th homer of the season. Naylor’s single-season high in homers before this season was 20 in 2022.
Bibee settled into the game nicely after the first.
He put together three scoreless innings before the Twins struck again to take a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Minnesota turn a hit by pitch and two singles into the go-ahead.
Bibee retired the first two batters in the inning, but hit Castro. Wallner followed with a single to right to send Castro to third. Correa delivered Castro with an “excuse-me” single in the hole between first and second that Andrés Giménez made a nice stop on.
Obert made the lead stand through the sixth before meeting Josh Naylor to start the seventh. Naylor turned his 2-2 changeup into a moon shot that landed in the right field seats to tie the game at 2. It was Naylor’s third multi-homer game of the season and the fifth of his career.
After Correa’s single in the fifth, Bibee retired the next six batters before being relieved by Cade Smith with two out in the seventh. Smith retired four of the five batters he faced. He allowed a leadoff double to Wallner in the eighth, but retired the next three batters.
Smith struck out Trevor Larnach to end the inning. It was his 100th strikeout of the season, making him just the sixth reliever to strike out 100 or more batters in a season. The last to do it was Paul Shuey in 1999.
Bibee allowed two runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked one. In four starts against the Twins this season, he has a 1.82 ERA (five earned runs in 24 2/3 innings).
When asked what kind of problem the 6-foot-9, 260-pound Obert presented to Cleveland’s hitters before Wednesday’s game, manager Stephen Vogt said, “He throws from a very steep angle. . . If we chase him up above with his fastball or under with his off speed, we’re going to be in trouble. That downward angle that he presents from being 6-9, it feels like he’s really close to you when he lets the ball go.”
Ober was all of that and more. In seven innings he struck out 12 and allowed two runs on four hits.
Next: LHP Joey Cantillo (2-3, 4.99) vs. RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (5-5, 4.08) Thursday at 1:10 p.m. Bally Sports Great Lakes and MLB Network will televise the game. WTAM, WMMS, WARF and the Guardians radio network will broadcast it.
