Guardians clinch their 3rd straight AL Central crown with an 11-5 win over the Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Once again, the Cleveland Guardians are division champs.

Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio each hit two of Cleveland’s five home runs as the Guardians beat the Kansas City Royals 11-5 on Saturday night to clinch their third straight AL Central title.

Cleveland’s victory coupled with Chicago’s 9-6 loss to Colorado gave the Guardians (85-76) a two-game lead over the second-place White Sox (83-78) with one game remaining in the regular season.

José Ramírez and the Guardians are assured the No. 2 seed in the American League playoffs and a first-round bye into a best-of-five Division Series. They will have five days off and then home-field advantage against the winner of a best-of-three Wild Card Series between the No. 6 seed White Sox and either Houston or Texas — whichever one wins the AL West on Sunday.

It is Cleveland’s seventh division crown in the past 11 seasons.

Kansas City jumped on Tanner Bibee for three first-inning runs, highlighted by doubles from Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone. But then Bibee shut out Kansas City as Cleveland quickly mounted a comeback.

A fielding error by Bobby Witt Jr. at shortstop opened the Guardians’ four-run second inning. Bailey hooked a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole, and Cleveland grabbed a 4-3 lead when Steven Kwan’s slicing liner eluded diving left fielder Isaac Collins for an RBI triple — one of four extra-base hits in the inning.

After missing four games with a right wrist sprain, Chase DeLauter lined Michael Wacha’s second pitch of the third into the right-field seats for his 16th home run.

Travis Bazzana tripled and scored on Nathaniel Lowe’s sacrifice fly in the sixth, and Rocchio hit his 14th homer in the seventh. Bailey and Rocchio connected for back-to-back homers to highlight a four-run ninth.

Nine of the Guardians’ 14 hits went for extra bases.

Bibee (7-15) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out six. Cleveland has won nine of 10 games and five straight series.

Wacha (9-10) worked 6 1/3 innings, permitting six runs — two earned — and six hits.

The last-place Royals (68-93) have dropped 11 of 13 and 18 of 24. Kansas City lost eight straight series to finish the season, its longest such skid since losing eight in a row from April 10 to May 7, 2023.

Up next

The Guardians were undecided on the mound for their regular-season finale Sunday against LHP Daniel Lynch (6-6, 4.13 ERA) and the Royals.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here