Guardians 9, Marlins 4: Cleveland clinches another series; Austin Hedges has special moment with fans

CLEVELAND — The American League's hottest team since July 7 put series in the win column Thursday night at Progressive Field. Shaking off an iffy effort from right-hander Tanner Bibee, the Guardians beat the Marlins 9-4 to clinch their seventh series in the last nine while improving to an AL-best 23-9 over their last 32 games. All of the winning has come on the heels of a 10-game losing streak that seemed to take Cleveland out of playoff contention. The Guardians, who entered the night 6½ games behind Detroit in the Central Division and a game behind the Yankees for the final wild card spot, tied at 4 on a single from a red-hot Kyle Manzardo in the fifth. The go-ahead run in the same inning came on a sacrifice fly from Gabriel Arias, who had two RBIs without recording a hit. Cleveland put it away with a four-run seventh. The Guardians beat a pretty good pitcher in right-hander Edward Cabrera, who entered the night with a 3.08 ERA over 20 starts. After Bibee allowed three runs in the first, Cleveland tied it in the bottom of the inning, putting the first three aboard on singles — the last from Jose Ramirez to score Steven Kwan. A wild pitch plated Angel Martinez and Ramirez scored the tying run on Gabriel Arias' grounder to short. It was the first of three runs for Ramirez, who passed Kenny Lofton for the third-most in franchise history with 977 runs. Entering his 24th start with a 4.60 ERA, Bibee, who had surrendered home runs in each of his last four starts and 22 in 23 overall, struggled again.He didn't allow a homer, but surrendered four runs (two earned) on five hits while walking four and failing to make it out of the sixth. The first three batters reached off Bibee, who allowed a double to Agustin Ramirez for the first run of the game. Miami scored two more unearned runs in the opening inning, going up 3-0 when catcher Austin Hedges lost the ball trying to tag out Kyle Stowers on a fielder's choice attempt. Ramirez scored behind Stowers after the ball bounced away from Hedges. Hedges did contribute offensively with two hits, including a double in the sixth. He was rewarded during his next at-bat in the seventh by many of the 22,605 in attendance with a chant of "Hedgie, Hedgie." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on X @CAwesomeheimer.