Guardians 8, White Sox 2: Nail in the coffin

The Cleveland Guardians have secured the series win over the Chicago White Sox, taking their second in a row at Guaranteed Rate Field tonight, 8-2. This one was all Cleveland from the start. And there are really no more words to describe any of this, so let’s just look at the game.

Looks like Lance Lynn has some words about their play as well.

The Guardians started off strong against Lynn, hitting back-to-back singles to open the game. What should have been an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded turned into a run for the Guardians, as José Abreu was unable to scoop the ball at first, which scored Steven Kwan. Andrés Giménez added a run on a single to score Josh Naylor and give Cleveland a 2-0 lead before the White Sox even went up to bat.

Triston McKenzie allowed a single to Abreu in the bottom of the first, but that was all. He then proceeded to strike out two in the bottom of the second.

Lynn got into more trouble in the top of the third, as Naylor reached due to a miscommunication in the outfield grass between Andrew Vaughn and Yoán Moncada. Of course, those mistakes come back to bite you, as Oscar Gonzalez singled and Giménez singled to score Naylor. Rookie Will Brennan added onto the lead (in his first major league game) with a single of his own to score Gonzalez, pushing the Guardians lead to 4-0. A double play by Austin Hedges scored another run, and Elvis Andrus finally ended the inning with a great play, honestly one of the only highlights of the night.

Kwan started off the top of the fourth inning with a solo home run to add onto the lead, 6-0. Moncada fought back and started the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run to put the South Siders on the board, now just down five!

After that, McKenzie continued to breeze through the order, striking out batter after batter. José Ruiz started the top of the seventh inning and walked José Ramírez. As if this game couldn’t get any worse, Naylor hit a two-run home run to extend the Guardians lead to 8-1.

McKenzie pitched into the seventh, where he started the inning by giving up a double to Eloy Jiménez, and a single from Gavin Sheets drove him in.

Then, McKenzie struck some more guys out. By some, I mean a lot. He ended the night with 13 strikeouts, one short of his last outing against the team. Safe to say, we don’t like facing McKenzie.

James Karinchak pitched the ninth and secured the win.

Honestly, there’s not much more to say at this point. Nothing is impossible, but the White Sox are now six games back, which is effectively seven given the tiebreaker.

If you choose to watch, we face these Guardians one more time tomorrow nigh,t at 7:10 p.m. where Shane Bieber will face off against Johnny Cueto.