A pair of American League teams on opposite sides of the playoff cut line open up a weekend series on the diamond down in the Lone Star State. The Cleveland Guardians are on the road as they kick off a three-game series with the Texas Rangers Friday night. Cleveland was on the road in the Windy City as they tried to sweep the White Sox Thursday night. The Guardians rolled to an 8-2 victory in the middle game of the set Wednesday night. Texas won the rubber game of their three-game set at home with the Angels as they prevailed 5-3 Thursday afternoon. The Guardians took two of three at home in the first series between the teams this season June 7-8.
Cleveland took the first two games of their series with the White Sox on the road after rolling Wednesday and took another step toward the AL Central crown. The Guardians entered Thursday night with a six-game lead over the White Sox in the AL Central race with a magic number of eight. On Wednesday night, Cleveland got three hits from Steven Kwan (two runs, RBI) while Andres Gimenez (run, two RBI) and Will Brennan (RBI) each had two hits. Kwan (his fifth) and Josh Naylor (his 19th) each went deep in the contest. Triston McKenzie (11-11) earned the win in this contest as he went eight innings, allowing two runs on six hits with no walks and 13 strikeouts.
Cody Morris is on the mound for the Guardians as he makes his fifth start of the season in this contest. He comes in 0-2 with a 2.30 ERA, a 1.532 WHIP, nine walks and 15 strikeouts over 15.2 innings of work this season. Morris suffered a tough loss in his last start, which came Sunday at home against the Twins. He threw six innings, allowing one run on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts in game the Guardians lost 3-0. In his last three starts, Morris is 0-1 with a 1.32 ERA, a 1.32 WHIP, seven walks and 12 strikeouts over 13.2 innings of work. Morris, in his fifth career major league start, faces the Rangers for the first time. That makes this his first career appearance at Globe Life Field. Prior to his recall, Morris had no record with a 1.69 ERA, a 0.703 WHIP, six walks and 39 strikeouts over 21.1 innings of work in nine appearances, six starts, split between the Guardians’ Rookie League team of the Arizona Complex League and Triple-A Columbus of the International League.