Jose Ramirez Delivers As 2026 Woes Dissipate in Beatdown of Athletics at Home

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The Cleveland Guardians are playing their best baseball when it matters the most.

And with the 2026 regular season coming to a close, the top spot in the American League Central still remains on the line.

On Friday, Sept. 18, the Guardians maintained their edge over the Chicago White Sox for the No. 1 spot in the standings with a 5-3 victory at home over the Athletics. After falling down early, with rookie pitcher Daniel Espino giving up each of the A’s runs in the first, the team battled back to score five straight.

Espino would exit following the first, with the coaching staff turning to Joey Cantillo to eat up the next few innings. While that was always the plan, thrusting him into a game that the team was trailing big-time certainly wasn’t.

He performed well, though, cutting down batters left and right as he worked his way through six innings. He gave up just two hits and one walk on 81 total pitches, all while striking out five.

Along the way, the Guardians’ offense helped give Cantillo his 10th victory while on the mound.

In the bottom of the fourth, Patrick Bailey singled to start the fun. Following him, Petey Halpin, who has been playing strong at the plate as of late, singled to center. That put two on quickly with no outs.

Brayan Rocchio then punched both across home plate, doubling down the line in right field and cutting the difference to a single run.

But the Guardians weren’t done there.

José Ramírez would score Rocchio just two batters later, knotting the game up at three.

After Espino’s early struggles, the Guardians had found life.

Rookie Travis Bazzana, who is also breaking out of a slump and playing some of his best baseball of the season, smacked a solo home run to right-center field to give the team a 4-3 advantage in the bottom of the fifth inning. A frame later, Ramírez kept his bat hot as he homered to center field and gave the team a cushion.

The freshly 34-year-old now has 1,000 RBI in his career and is continuing to climb many career rankings within the organization. This season, he has 53.

While it hasn’t been Ramírez’s best season, not by any means, getting him going right before the postseason may be exactly what the Guardians need to put together competitive outings against some of the league’s best squads.

And while the offense, led by Ramírez, did their job, the bullpen did too.

After Cantillo was relieved by Hunter Gaddis, he and closer Cade Smith kept the Athletics off the board. They gave up zero hits, walks and runs, with Smith striking out two.

Smith’s two K’s propelled him past 100 strikeouts on the season, joining Dick Radatz as the only other reliever to record triple-digit strikeouts in each of their first three seasons in MLB.

Looking to keep this momentum going, the Guardians and Athletics meet back up on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 6:10 p.m. EST from Progressive Field. The Guardians will look to take the series.

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