José Ramírez had three hits including his 36th home run, drove in two and stole his 40th base as the Cleveland Guardians beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 on Friday night to move closer to the AL Central crown.
Ben Lively (13-9) pitched five innings, allowing just one earned run and three hits while striking out two and walking one. It was his third consecutive start of allowing fewer than two runs.
The Guardians magic number for the division is now one. The Cardinals’ loss and the Arizona Diamondbacks victory over the Milwaukee Brewers officially eliminated St. Louis from postseason contention for the second consecutive season.
Cardinals starter Kyle Gibson (8-8) allowed four runs (three earned) in six innings. He struck out two and walked three, allowing multiple home runs for just the fifth time in 29 starts.
Miles Mikolas (8-11, 5.49) starts for St. Louis in the second game of the series, opposed by Cleveland LHP Matthew Boyd (2-1, 2.52), 5:20 with the pregame and the first pitch at 6:15 on KIRX.