Cleveland 3, Texas 2
When: 7:15 PM ET, Saturday, September 27, 2025
Where: Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
Temperature:
75°
Umpires:
Home -
John Libka, 1B -
D.J. Reyburn, 2B -
Sean Barber, 3B -
James Hoye
Attendance:
36000
By Field Level Media
C.J. Kayfus was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, scoring Petey Halpin as the Cleveland Guardians clinched an American League playoff berth with a 3-2 win over the visiting Texas Rangers on Saturday night.
Rangers closer Robert Garcia (4-8) intentionally walked Gabriel Arias to face rookie Kayfus with two outs in the ninth, but he struck him on the right arm with his second pitch. Halpin was pinch-running for Johnathan Rodriguez, who had walked, and Kyle Manzardo followed with a single.
Cleveland (87-74) locked up a wild-card spot but is also tied with the Detroit Tigers for first place in the Central Division. The Guardians would win a tiebreaker and the teams are assured of playing each other in the first round of the postseason.
Cade Smith (8-5) worked 1 2/3 innings and was the winner. The Rangers (81-80) need one victory to ensure they would finish with a winning record.
Rangers slugger Adolis Garcia, who had been 1-for-24 since coming off the injured list, belted a towering solo homer in the fourth to tie the game at 2. The 433-foot drive landed midway up the bleachers in left-center field.
Rodriguez gave the Guardians a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first with a two-run homer to right-center against Jacob Latz, just his second long ball in 98 career at-bats.
Texas got on the board three batters in when Josh Jung hit an RBI double off Joey Cantillo to score Michael Helman, who had hit a leadoff double.
Cantillo struck out eight over 5 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on three hits without a walk. Latz allowed two runs on five hits and no walks in 5 1/3 innings, striking out six.
The Guardians had a golden opportunity to go ahead in the fifth when Arias led off with a triple that bounced past left fielder Cody Freeman. Latz stranded him there by striking out Jhonkensy Noel, Brayan Rocchio and Austin Hedges.
Texas had the potential go-ahead run thrown out at the plate in the eighth as Dylan Moore was on the second half of a delayed double-steal that ended the inning.
The sellout crowd of exactly 36,000 pushed Cleveland over 2,000,000 in attendance for the second straight season, something it hadn't accomplished since 2007 and ‘08.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
| Texas |
|
Cleveland |
|
Jake Latz
|
Player |
Joey Cantillo
|
|
No Decision |
W/L |
No Decision |
|
5.1 |
IP |
5.2 |
|
6 |
Strikeouts |
8 |
|
5 |
Hits |
3 |
|
3.38 |
ERA |
3.18 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Texas
|
6 |
1 |
11 |
.188 |
11 |
13 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Cleveland
|
6 |
1 |
11 |
.200 |
5 |
8 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
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