The Cleveland Guardians are heating up down the stretch of the common season.
Nonetheless, they might face a stiff problem from Tampa Bay’s Ryan Pepiot on Thursday within the opener of a four-game residence sequence in opposition to the Rays.
From Aug. 3-27, Cleveland (84-62) went 8-16 and misplaced its outright lead within the American League Central for a bit earlier than successful 9 of 13 since then. The division-leading Guardians capped a three-game highway sweep of the lowly Chicago White Sox with a 6-4 win on Wednesday.
“It is September, man, it is time to attempt to go take this division,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, who homered Wednesday, advised Bally Sports activities Cleveland. “We’ll nonetheless acquired room to develop, however we’re enjoying good ball proper now.”
Cleveland’s Lane Thomas had three hits with 4 RBIs within the finale at Chicago, and he’s batting .405 with 13 RBIs in 10 video games this month. Thomas entered September batting .148 with three RBIs in 28 video games since being acquired from Washington.
“I feel any time you get traded otherwise you go to a brand new place, it takes quite a lot of time so that you can really get comfy in all areas of life,” supervisor Stephen Vogt mentioned, in line with MLB.com. “However for Lane, we really feel like he is again on the fastball, trying like himself. He is comfy, he is assured and he is had some actually good at-bats.”
Thomas has by no means confronted Pepiot (8-6, 3.66 ERA), who led the Rays to a 2-0 win over the Guardians on July 14. In that contest, the right-hander allowed two hits, hit a batter however did not yield a stroll whereas putting out 4 over six shutout innings.
Although Pepiot landed on the injured listing with a knee an infection days later, that efficiency is a part of a nine-start stretch by which he’s 4-2 with a 2.31 ERA. He needed to grind at occasions on Saturday in Baltimore whereas permitting six hits and two walks, however solely a single run, in 5 1/3 innings throughout a 7-1 overcome the Orioles.
“We had a superb plan going into it,” Pepiot mentioned. “Once they did get guys on, let one pitch take us to the following one after which get ourselves out of conditions.”
In two profession outings (one begin) in opposition to Cleveland, Pepiot is 1-0 with a 0.90 ERA.
The Rays (71-75) took two of three at Baltimore, then went to Philadelphia this week and totaled seven runs whereas being swept within the three-game set.
Regardless of Tampa Bay’s offensive futility in opposition to the Phillies, Yandy Diaz is batting .400 with eight RBIs in his previous 10 video games. He is 2-for-5 with two doubles in opposition to Cleveland’s scheduled Thursday starter, Gavin Williams (3-8, 5.25 ERA).
The precise-hander will look to bounce again after he didn’t make it out of the primary inning on Saturday in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Williams yielded three walks and two hits and was charged with 5 runs whereas getting simply two outs in a 7-2 loss.
Williams allowed three runs and 4 hits in 12 innings mixed over his earlier two outings.
“Simply sort of overthrowing just a bit bit and yanking the ball, and so he simply did not have the command,” Vogt mentioned.
Williams had inconsistent command at Tampa Bay on July 13, when he allowed three hits and three walks by means of 94 pitches however solely two runs (one earned) in 5 innings throughout Cleveland’s 4-2 victory. In two profession begins in opposition to the Rays, he has no selections and a 1.80 ERA.
–Area Stage Media
