Even with the American League Central title secured, the Cleveland Guardians have plenty to play for during the final week of the regular season.
Meanwhile, in the wake of firing manager David Bell, the in-state rival Cincinnati Reds eye a positive end to a disappointing season as they open a two-game set at Cleveland on Tuesday night.
For the fifth time in nine seasons, Cleveland (90-67) is a division champion. And entering playing Monday, the Guardians have the second-best record in the AL and would receive a bye into the AL Division Series.
“Our focus right now is trying to get a one or two seed,” general manager Mike Chernoff said, per MLB.com.
“So, we’re thinking about how we play these next (five) games, hopefully get some help from other teams to where we can start planning as early as possible for only a Division Series.”
Cleveland just dropped the final two of a three-game set at St. Louis, but has won five of its last six at home.
Scheduled Guardians starter Tanner Bibee (11-8, 3.56 ERA) will focus on fine-tuning his game. The right-hander is 1-2 with a 3.04 ERA in four September starts. He allowed two runs, five hits and a walk in 6 2/3 innings of Wednesday’s 5-4 victory in 10 inning over the Minnesota Twins.
Bibee essentially made two bad pitches during his most recent outing versus Cincinnati. On June 12, he yielded four runs on a solo homer and three-run shot via Cincinnati’s Jeimer Candelario. He struck out 11 in 5 1/3 innings of the Guardians’ 4-2 loss.
Candelario has been out since Aug. 19 with a broken toe for the Reds (76-81), whose quest for consecutive winning seasons ended with Sunday’s 2-0 loss versus Pittsburgh.
Shortly after that defeat, the club fired Bell, who went 409-456 in six seasons as Cincinnati manager. The Reds finished above .500 in three of the previous four seasons and made the playoffs in 2020.
Injuries and underachievement plagued Cincinnati this season as it ranks near the bottom of the major leagues in batting average (.233) and endured a 4-17 stretch from April 30-May 23.
Bench coach Freddie Benavides will guide the club this week.
“David provided the kind of steadiness that we needed in our clubhouse over the last few seasons,” Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said in a release.
“We felt a change was needed to move the major league team forward. We have not achieved the success we expected, and we need to begin focusing on 2025.”
Acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers at the trade deadline, scheduled Reds starter Jakob Junis (4-0, 2.61 ERA) could play a prominent role for the club in 2025. The right-hander has appeared in 13 games. Four of those were starts where he has yielded just two earned runs, six hits, one walk and struck out 17 over 20 innings.
Junis is 3-9 with a 6.41 ERA in 18 career appearances (15 starts) against the Guardians but has not faced them since 2021.
Cleveland star Jose Ramirez has homered twice against Junis. He’s batting .365 with six homers and 23 RBIs in his last 18 games versus Cincinnati.
The Reds’ Elly De La Cruz is 12-for-40 (.300) with two home runs over his last 10 games but has struck out 16 times during that stretch.
