The Guardians had a chance to build some cushion in the wild-card race Thursday afternoon. Instead, Tanner Bibee’s command cracked at the worst possible time, Toronto pounced, and Cleveland walked away with a 6-3 loss at Progressive Field.
The defeat dropped Cleveland to 70-70 and tightened the race around the third and final AL wild card. Toronto, now 70-71, moved within a half-game of the Guardians.
The Blue Jays also did more than just close the gap in the standings: by winning the season series 4-2, they grabbed the head-to-head tiebreaker if the teams finish with the same record. It was Toronto’s first season-series win over Cleveland since 2021.
Bibee’s afternoon turned on one ugly fifth inning. He tied a career high with five walks, and the Blue Jays turned that lack of control into four runs.
He was charged with five earned runs on four hits in four-plus innings, striking out four, and the loss snapped his run of three straight quality starts. It was also his league-leading 15th loss.
Cleveland got the first punch in. Angel Genao lined an RBI single in the third to give the Guardians a 1-0 lead, but Toronto answered in the fourth and then broke things open the next inning.
The Guardians had already let chances slip early. Steven Kwan opened the game with a single that glanced off Brett Bateman’s glove, and Chase DeLauter followed with a double to put runners at second and third with nobody out. José Ramírez grounded out, Jo Adell popped out, and Nathaniel Lowe struck out, leaving Cleveland empty-handed.
They came up short again in the second after José Soriano hit Travis Bazzana and walked Austin Hedges. Brayan Rocchio grounded into a force-out, Kwan flied out, and the Guardians were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position through two innings.
Cleveland finally cashed in with two outs in the third. Adell walked, Lowe singled, and Genao drove in Adell with a line single for the 1-0 lead. That was Genao’s sixth RBI in 24 games.
Toronto tied it in the fourth after the Guardians gave Vladimir Guerrero Jr. an extra chance. Guerrero’s foul popup dropped between Genao and Hedges, and he eventually worked a walk. He moved up on Jesús Sánchez’s groundout and scored on a Sean Keys single to left.
Then came the fifth, and it unraveled fast. Bibee walked Ernie Clement and Brandon Valenzuela to start the inning, then Bateman beat out a bunt single to load the bases. Nathan Lukes followed with a two-run double into the right-center gap, giving Toronto a 3-1 lead and ending Bibee’s day.
Colin Holderman came on with two on and nobody out, but the damage kept coming. Guerrero lifted a sacrifice fly to right, Sánchez dropped a high popup in front of Steven Kwan for an RBI single, and the Blue Jays were suddenly up 5-1.
The inning got even messier when Travis Bazzana mishandled Sean Keys’ routine grounder and Holderman walked Josh Smith to reload the bases. Craig Yoho finally stopped the bleeding by striking out Andrés Giménez and getting Clement on a popup.
The Guardians did manage to answer. After Adell beat out an infield single and Genao walked, Mason Fluharty entered and walked pinch-hitter David Fry to load the bases.
Austin Hedges then lined a two-run single back through the middle, trimming Toronto’s lead to 5-3. But Fluharty struck out Rocchio with Daniel Schneemann at third to end the threat.
Toronto added an insurance run in the ninth against Carlos Hernández on a two-out single up the middle, leaving Cleveland with too much to chase in its final at-bat.
Bateman finished with three hits for Toronto and has reached base 38 times in his first 22 major league games.
For the Guardians, the loss stung because of what it did to the race around them. What started as a chance to separate from one of the teams on their heels ended with the standings compressed and Toronto holding the tiebreaker too.
The Guardians open a four-game series against Detroit on Friday with a split doubleheader at Progressive Field. Game 1 is scheduled for 2:10 p.m., followed by Game 2 at 7:10 p.m.
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Stephen Vogt now has three names in the mix for those spots, with Rocchio competing against Angel Genao and Travis Bazzana. If the offense does not turn back in Rocchios favor, Cleveland could lean toward Genao and Bazzana and leave Rocchio in a reserve role, a sharp shift for a player who not long ago seemed positioned to hold a much more prominent place in the lineup. [Read more 🡒]
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A sloppy second inning turned into the kind of inning that lingers, with Travis Bazzana and Angel Genao both involved in the breakdown that opened the door for the Blue Jays to pile on. Cleveland wound up staring at an 11-0 defeat, and the frustration was not just the final score but the way the Guardians kept giving Toronto extra life when they could least afford it. [Read more 🡒]