Guardians Clinch Third Straight AL Playoff Berth With 1-0 Win Over Red Sox

The Cleveland Guardians clinched their third consecutive American League playoff berth Thursday night with a 1-0 win over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, Reuters and Sportsnet reported, as Angel Martínez’s second-inning home run held up behind bulk relief from Joey Cantillo.

Martínez broke up Ranger Suárez’s early command with a 319-foot solo shot inside Pesky’s Pole in right field — his 18th homer of the season, according to Sportsnet’s Associated Press account. That was Cleveland’s only run and, it turned out, all the Guardians needed. The visitors finished with four hits while holding Boston to two, winning the decisive game of the three-game series after Boston’s 1-0 victory Wednesday.

Cantillo (11-9) worked five shutout innings after opener Daniel Espino’s 1-2-3 first. Cantillo allowed one hit and two walks with four strikeouts and has not allowed a run across his last three outings totaling 15 innings as a bulk reliever, Reuters reported. Espino bookended his first inning with strikeouts before handing the ball to the left-hander.

The Guardians (83-76) logged their seventh win in eight games and remained one game ahead of the Chicago White Sox (82-77) atop the AL Central with three regular-season games remaining for both clubs. Sportsnet noted Cleveland is guaranteed at least an American League wild card and retains the Central lead; the division winner is likely to earn the No. 2 seed and a bye into the Division Series, though Chicago holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Boston (85-74), already playoff-bound, fell for the fourth time in five games despite five innings of one-run ball from Suárez (8-5), who struck out five and allowed three hits and one walk. Suárez escaped a two-on jam in the third and retired the final eight Guardians he faced, Reuters said. Patrick Sandoval, Erik Miller and Raymond Burgos then combined for four shutout innings and one hit after Suárez departed, with Burgos pitching hitless ball over the final two frames.

Cleveland’s bullpen matched that standard. Hunter Gaddis allowed the sole Red Sox hit in relief of Cantillo — a Jarren Duran single in the seventh — after a leadoff walk in that frame was erased on a 6-4-3 double play. Erik Sabrowski struck out two in the eighth, and All-Star closer Cade Smith fanned the side in a 1-2-3 ninth for his major league-leading 41st save, both Reuters and Sportsnet reported.

Thursday’s clinch was part of a wider wave: Sportsnet’s roundup said the Guardians, White Sox, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres all punched October tickets on the same slate. The White Sox became the first team to reach the playoffs after consecutive 100-loss seasons with a 9-1 win at Kansas City, keeping the AL Central race alive into the final weekend. Cleveland wraps a three-game set at the Royals after leaving Boston, while Chicago hosts Colorado.

For readers following September baseball on Sports, the Guardians’ third straight postseason berth arrives without a division lock. Three games remain, and a one-game lead plus Chicago’s tiebreaker means the Central title — and the likely Division Series bye — still hangs on the final weekend rather than Thursday’s champagne.

The pitching script that got Cleveland there was unusually clean for a clincher. Espino’s clean first, Cantillo’s five scoreless as the bulk arm, Gaddis navigating traffic, Sabrowski’s eighth, and Smith’s three-strikeout ninth formed a shutout chain that left Boston’s lineup with almost no margin after Martínez’s early blast. Reuters noted Cantillo’s 15 consecutive scoreless innings since leaving the rotation, a stretch that has turned the Guardians’ opener-bulk package into a late-season weapon.

Boston’s night was nearly as stingy on the mound and still came up empty. Suárez’s ability to strand traffic and then retire eight in a row kept the Red Sox within a swing until the end, but Cleveland’s defense and double play in the seventh erased the only real threat after Cantillo exited. With both clubs already October-bound in different ways — Cleveland clinching Thursday, Boston already in — the series finale became a Central standings and seeding story as much as a wild-card drama.

Friday’s schedule, per Sportsnet, sends Cleveland to Kansas City at 7:40 p.m. ET while the White Sox open a Rockies series at home at the same hour. Three games later, either the Guardians will have secured the Central or Chicago will have forced a photo finish that Thursday’s 1-0 shutout only postponed.