Guardians top Cardinals, close in on AL Central title

Jose Ramirez went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs as the visiting Cleveland Guardians defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 on Friday.

Andres Gimenez and Lane Thomas also hit home runs for the Guardians (90-65), who won for the sixth time in seven games.

They reduced their magic number to clinch the American League Central title to one after the Kansas City Royals lost to the San Francisco Giants 2-1 on Friday.

Guardians starting pitcher Ben Lively (13-9) allowed one run on three hits in five innings. He struck out two and walked one.

Rookie Erik Sabrowski worked the last 2 1/3 innings to earn his first career save.

Kyle Gibson (8-8) gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks in six innings for the Cardinals (77-77). He struck out two.

Cleveland took a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Daniel Schneemann walked with one out, raced to third on a single by Angel Martinez and scored on Ramirez's two-out single.

After Josh Naylor walked to load the bases, Gibson got Thomas to hit an inning-ending popout.

Lively retired the first seven batters he faced until Thomas Saggese hit a third-inning double. But Pedro Pages and Masyn Winn grounded out to strand Saggese.

The Guardians increased their lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning. Bo Naylor reached on a two-out infield single, moved to second on a throwing error and scored on Schneemann's single.

The Cardinals cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the inning after Alec Burleson led off with a double and took third on a groundout. Brendan Donovan drew a two-out walk, and Lars Nootbaar dropped an RBI double down the left field line.

Ramirez increased Cleveland's lead to 3-1 with his fifth-inning homer, then Gimenez made it 4-1 with his sixth-inning homer.

Thomas increased the Guardians' advantage to 5-1 with his homer in the eighth inning.

--Field Level Media