The Cleveland Guardians are officially done seeing the Chicago White Sox in 2022 following their 4-2 win in the Windy City on Thursday night. Shane Bieber led the way on the mound, pitching 7 2/3 innings and giving up just two runs while Steven Kwan had an RBI and a run scored in the top of the fifth that ended up being plenty for them on this particular evening. With the win, Cleveland swept the final series of the season against Chicago, won for the fourth consecutive outing, and they took a commanding seven-game lead in the AL Central over the Guardians.
They can now clinch as early as Sunday, though failure to do so is not likely to see them denied the division this time around as they have such a lead at this stage. Elsewhere, the Milwaukee Brewers were trying to keep their playoff hopes alive on the road in Cincinnati. Thanks to Philly’s 1-0 win at home over Atlanta, the Brewers weren’t able to close in, but they didn’t lose ground as Kolton Wong homered three times in a 5-1 victory over the Reds. Wong had three of the four Brew Crew hits in the game, with two solo blasts and a two-run bomb, and that was enough, along with six fine innings from Brandon Woodruff, to make sure they remained 2.5 games behind the Phillies in the NL Wild Card race.
