This story was originally published by Dead Spin
The Cleveland Guardians are heating up down the stretch of the regular season.
However, they could face a stiff challenge from Tampa Bay’s Ryan Pepiot on Thursday in the opener of a four-game home series against the Rays.
From Aug. 3-27, Cleveland (84-62) went 8-16 and lost its outright lead in the American League Central for a bit before winning nine of 13 since then. The division-leading Guardians capped a three-game road sweep of the lowly Chicago White Sox with a 6-4 win on Wednesday.
“It’s September, man, it’s time to try and go take this division,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, who homered Wednesday, told Bally Sports Cleveland. “We’ll still got room to grow, but we’re playing good ball right now.”
Cleveland’s Lane Thomas had three hits with four RBIs in the finale at Chicago, and he is batting .405 with 13 RBIs in 10 games this month. Thomas entered September batting .148 with three RBIs in 28 games since being acquired from Washington.
“I think any time you get traded or you go to a new place, it takes a lot of time for you to truly get comfortable in all areas of life,” manager Stephen Vogt said, according to MLB.com. “But for Lane, we feel like he’s back on the fastball, looking like himself. He’s comfortable, he’s confident and he’s had some really good at-bats.”
Thomas has never faced Pepiot (8-6, 3.66 ERA), who led the Rays to a 2-0 win over the Guardians on July 14. In that contest, the right-hander allowed two hits, hit a batter but didn’t yield a walk while striking out four over six shutout innings.
Though Pepiot landed on the injured list with a knee infection days later, that performance is part of a nine-start stretch in which he is 4-2 with a 2.31 ERA. He had to grind at times on Saturday in Baltimore while allowing six hits and two walks, but only a single run, in 5 1/3 innings during a 7-1 triumph over the Orioles.
“We had a good plan going into it,” Pepiot said. “When they did get guys on, let one pitch take us to the next one and then get ourselves out of situations.”
In two career outings (one start) against Cleveland, Pepiot is 1-0 with a 0.90 ERA.
The Rays (71-75) took two of three at Baltimore, then went to Philadelphia this week and totaled seven runs while being swept in the three-game set.
Despite Tampa Bay’s offensive futility against the Phillies, Yandy Diaz is batting .400 with eight RBIs in his past 10 games. He’s 2-for-5 with two doubles against Cleveland’s scheduled Thursday starter, Gavin Williams (3-8, 5.25 ERA).
The right-hander will look to bounce back after he failed to make it out of the first inning on Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Williams yielded three walks and two hits and was charged with five runs while getting just two outs in a 7-2 loss.
Williams allowed three runs and four hits in 12 innings combined over his previous two outings.
“Just kind of overthrowing just a little bit and yanking the ball, and so he just didn’t have the command,” Vogt said.
Williams had inconsistent command at Tampa Bay on July 13, when he allowed three hits and three walks through 94 pitches but only two runs (one earned) in five innings during Cleveland’s 4-2 victory. In two career starts against the Rays, he has no decisions and a 1.80 ERA.
–Field Level Media
