MLB

Cleveland Guardians at St. Louis Cardinals

· Major League Baseball
Cleveland Guardians
90-66, 42-38 Away
Final
5 - 6
St. Louis Cardinals
78-77, 43-37 Home

Herrera and Walker homer, Cardinals beat Guardians 6-5 after Cleveland had clinched division

José Ramírez and Bo Naylor homered for Cleveland, which clinched its 12th division title since 1995, when San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals 9-0 earlier Saturday.

“This is awesome just to see the joy,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “The result of tonight's game, it matters, but at the end of the day, we need to celebrate this. Any time you get the chance, you win the division, you've got to enjoy every second of it.”

Miles Mikolas (9-11) allowed one run on four hits in six innings to earn his first win since July 21 when he beat the Braves in Atlanta. He was 0-3 with a 6.80 ERA in his previous nine starts.

“It's a really good ball club,” Mikolas said. “They like to swing the bat, so you want to jump on top, get ahead early, do your best to keep them off balance and play some great defense out there today.”

Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 46th save in 50 chances to tie Guardians reliever Emmanuel Clase for the major league lead.

“He's been incredible, and he's taken the ball every time,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “In a series like this against these guys, it's a race to your ninth inning guy. He did a really nice job of showing that he's one of the best closers in the game.”

Matthew Boyd (2-2) allowed two runs on four hits and three walks and struck out six before being pulled after throwing 88 pitches in four innings.

Andrés Giménez hit an RBI double off Matthew Liberatore after Ramírez hit his 37th home run of the season off JoJo Romero earlier in the eighth inning to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 6-5.

Herrera hit his fourth home run of the season off Nick Sandlin in the seventh after Masyn Winn scored on a rocket that bounced off Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor’s glove for an error to give St. Louis a 6-1 lead.

“I was looking for the fastball first pitch, and I swung at it but I barely saw it,” Herrera said. “Then I saw him shaking, saying no, and I was like he's going to throw a starter because that's his pitch. I just sat on the slider.”

Bo Naylor hit his 13th homer of the season into the right field bullpen to cut Cleveland’s deficit to 2-1 in the fifth.

Walker hit his fifth home run of the season to left field in the fourth inning to put St. Louis ahead 2-0.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: Placed RHP Sonny Gray (right flexor tendinitis) on the 15-day injured list and recalled RHP Kyle Leahy from Triple-A Memphis. Gray said he would have been able to keep pitching if the Cardinals had not been mathematically eliminated from postseason contention Friday night.

UP NEXT

Guardians RHP Gavin Williams (3-10, 5.12 ERA) will face Cardinals RHP Andre Pallante in St. Louis’ home finale on Sunday.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the Cleveland manager’s first name to Stephen, instead of Steven.

How can I watch Cleveland Guardians vs. St. Louis Cardinals?
  • TV Channel: Guardians at Cardinals 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
  • Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Cardinals: 41.5%
Guardians: 58.5%
*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

9th Inning Fry struck out swinging.
9th Inning Martínez struck out swinging.
9th Inning Rocchio struck out swinging.
9th Inning Helsley relieved Liberatore
9th Inning Nootbaar in right field.
8th Inning Siani struck out swinging.

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/cle.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originCLE https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/stl.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originSTL
1 Games Played 1
1 Team Games Played 1
0 Hit By Pitch 1
13 Ground Balls 9
9 Strikeouts 10
5 Runs Batted In 5
0 Sacrifice Hit 0
10 Hits 8
1 Stolen Bases 0
1 Walks 3
0 Catcher Interference 0
5 Runs 6
0 Ground Into Double Play 0
0 Sacrifice Flies 0
37 At Bats 32
2 Home Runs 2
0 Grand Slam Home Runs 0
12 Runners Left On Base 14
0 Triples 0
0 Game Winning RBIs 1
0 Intentional Walks 0
2 Doubles 2
15 Fly Balls 13
0 Caught Stealing 1
136 Pitches 157
0 Games Started 0
3 Pinch At Bats 1
2 Pinch Hits 0
0.0 Player Rating 0.0
1 Is Qualified 1
1 Is Qualified In Steals 1
18 Total Bases 16
38 Plate Appearances 36
324.0 Projected Home Runs 324.0
4 Extra Base Hits 4
5.4 Runs Created 5.1
.270 Batting Average .250
.667 Pinch Hit Average .000
.486 Slugging Percentage .500
.270 Secondary Average .313
.289 On Base Percentage .333
.776 OBP Pct + SLG Pct .833
0.9 Ground To Fly Ball Ratio 0.7
5.4 Runs Created Per 27 Outs 5.5
41.0 Batter Rating 40.0
18.5 At Bats Per Home Run 16.0
1.00 Stolen Base Percentage 0.00
3.58 Pitches Per Plate Appearance 4.36
.216 Isolated Power .250
0.11 Walk To Strikeout Ratio 0.30
.026 Walks Per Plate Appearance .083
.000 Secondary Average Minus Batting Average .063
10.0 Runs Produced 11.0
1.0 Runs Ratio 0.8
0.5 Patience Ratio 0.6
0.3 Balls In Play Average 0.3
88.5 MLB Rating 86.3
0.0 Offensive Wins Above Replacement 0.0
0.0 Wins Above Replacement 0.0

Game Information

Busch Stadium

Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 41,317 | Capacity:

2024 American League Central Standings

TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Cleveland 92 69 .571 - L2
Kansas City 86 76 .531 6.5 W1
Detroit 86 76 .531 6.5 L2
Minnesota 82 80 .506 10.5 L4
Chicago 41 121 .253 51.5 W2

2024 National League Central Standings

TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Milwaukee 93 69 .574 - L1
St. Louis 83 79 .512 10 W1
Chicago 83 79 .512 10 L1
Cincinnati 77 85 .475 16 W1
Pittsburgh 76 86 .469 17 L1
Full Standings