Ten seasons, a hundred runs at a time
Jose Ramirez turned on an 0-1 slider from Seth Johnson in the sixth inning at Progressive Field on Friday night and put it over the wall in right. The ball was his 12th home run of the season and his first since Aug. 30. It also carried the 1,000th run batted in of his career.
Only one other player in the history of the Cleveland franchise has reached that number. Earl Averill, a Hall of Famer who wore the uniform from 1929 to 1939, finished with 1,084. Ramirez now trails him by 84 and becomes the 12th active major leaguer past four figures.
“I like to use those round numbers,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “Ten years of 100 RBIs. When you break it down that way, it’s incredible what he has accomplished, and he’s not even close to being done, right?”
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Cleveland grind out a third straight
The milestone landed inside a 5-3 win that mattered for reasons beyond the record book. Rookie Travis Bazzana had gone deep in the fifth. Ramirez followed an inning later. Cleveland have now won three in a row and sit a game clear of the Chicago White Sox at the top of the American League Central.
Zack Gelof had actually put the Athletics in front with a three-run homer in the first, which turned out to be the high point of their evening. The visitors have now lost four straight. Reliever Scott Blewett allowed one run on one hit across 1 2/3 innings and took the loss at 2-1.
Joey Cantillo did the heavy lifting. He came out of the bullpen for six scoreless innings to improve to 10-9, and Cade Smith handled the ninth for his 38th save.
The margin from here
A one-game cushion in the Central with the calendar this far gone leaves almost nothing to spare. Cantillo’s six innings in relief say more about the state of Cleveland’s rotation than any standings page does, and the Guardians will need that bullpen to hold through the final fortnight.
Ramirez has been the constant through all of it. A decade of roughly 100 runs driven in per season tends to pass without much noise until a round number forces everyone to look.
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