José Ramírez homers and drives in a pair, Ben Lively goes 5 innings, and Guardians top Cardinals 5-1

ST. LOUIS (AP) 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.

“When you watch him play, it’s OK, this guy wants to play, he wants to be the best,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of Ramírez. “Nothing he does will ever surprise me. He’s capable of great things.”

Ramírez has more goals this season.

“It feels good, but obviously it’s going to feel a lot better if I’m able to hit four more homers for the 40/40,” he said through an interpreter.

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.

“A couple times in the past, I’ve kind of chilled out a little bit, thinking I’ve got it figured out a little bit, and bad things happened,” Lively said. “You know what you’re doing, (so) keep going. I’ve got plenty of time in the offseason to think about it.”

Erik Sabrowski gave up two hits in 2 1/3 innings for the first save of his professional career.

Andrés Giménez and Lane Thomas added solo home runs for the Guardians. Thomas, who began his career in St. Louis, hit his first homer at Busch Stadium since Sept. 10, 2020.

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.

“Felt really good, (but) we’d like to have two pitches back,” Gibson said.

“Especially against this lineup, I feel like (Gibson) actually navigated it well,” Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said. “You’ve got a ton of lefties in there, a lot of guys that make contact, they’re in the air quite a bit, they don’t swing and miss. He gave us a shot.”

Lars Nootbaar had two hits for the Cardinals, including a popup double to shallow left field in the fourth inning to drive in St. Louis’ run. Thomas Saggese had two hits in his first career start at third base. His fourth inning throwing error allowed Bo Naylor to advance to second base on a single and score on an RBI base hit by Daniel Schneemann.

The Guardians, who locked up a playoff spot on Thursday at home, will clinch the AL Central with one more win or one more loss by the Kansas City Royals.

“(Clinching at home) was really fun, and we should enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean the work stops,” Vogt said. “We have to continue to push all the way through to the end.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: Marmol said the Cardinals are still evaluating how the team will align its pitching rotation over its final eight games of the regular season. RHP Sonny Gray described pitching through undisclosed “lingering things” following his most recent start on Sept. 18.

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb (right middle finger blister) is “building up volume” before pitching in a game, Vogt said. OF Steven Kwan (mid-back irritation) is eligible to come off the injured list on Tuesday, and Vogt said the team is “targeting” that day for his activation. “Obviously we don’t know what’s going to happen between now and then, but his progression is going well. He’s feeling better every day,” Vogt said. RHP Carlos Carrasco cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus.

UP NEXT

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). Mikolas is trying to avoid becoming the first Cardinals pitcher since Kip Wells in 2007 to pitch at least 150 innings with an ERA of 5.50 or higher.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB