Max Clark continues hitting seventh for Tigers

Pitching with a huge lead after the second inning, Cease cruised to his 10th win of the season here. It was more of an old school outing for Cease though as he leaned heavily on his fastball and slider without throwing many changeups. That pitch was all over the place, about five ticks slower than its season average, and a few floated on him so it made sense that he went away from it. Nevertheless, Cease left this start with a 2.25 ERA as he continues to work towards his first Cy Young award. He has a two-start week coming up first against the Athletics in Sacramento and then back home for a meeting with the Orioles.

Wow! A home run! He only had one in the entire second half before this and funny enough, it shouldn’t even have happened. Angel Genao made a crucial throwing error with two outs in the second inning which set the stage for Guerrero’s three-run shot. He also plated a run in the first inning with a double and had another run-scoring hit in the sixth as the Blue Jays built their massive lead in this blowout victory. It’s better late than never for Guerrero to find one of his patented hot streaks before the season ends.

All DeLauter does is hit. This was his 12th multi-hit game since the All-Star break as he’s become one of the most consistent sources of offense for the Guardians lately. In August, he had a .363/.440/.538 slash line and looks to finish the season strong as a valuable source of runs, RBI, and batting average.

Cantillo’s night spun out early, but not necessarily to any fault of his own. With two outs, one run home, and the bases loaded in the second inning, Guardians’ shortstop Angel Genao made a throwing error that brought two runs home. Two pitches later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launched a three-run homer and suddenly there were five unearned runs on Cantillo’s ledger. Past that, he pushed the usage of his fastball up and it was crushed for six hard-hit balls as he missed letter-high with it too often. Regardless, we know we can count on a very odd game whenever Cantillo toes the rubber. He’s scheduled for a two-start week coming up against the Orioles and Twins.

Devers’ homer tonight was hit 415 feet to center. He has eight RBI in his last four games, greatly improving his chances of getting to 100 for the fifth time in his career. He’s 16 away with 22 games left.

Roupp allowed just two hits and two walks in the game. Unfortunately for him, they all came in the fourth, with the second walk forcing in a run. Still, he cruised otherwise — he allowed only one hard-hit ball on the night — and the Pirates had to be feeling good to see him get lifted after just 75 pitches. The quick hook suggests the Giants are going to be watching his workload the rest of the way. Because of injuries, he had never thrown more than last year’s 109 2/3 innings coming into this season. He’s at 144 2/3 right now. Roupp is due to face the Cardinals next time out. It should be a two-start week, with a second home outing versus the Padres to follow, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Giants decide to give him some additional time between starts.

The Giants gave him two runs to work with tonight. Smith surrendered an RBI single to Nick Gonzales to start his inning, but he then retired three in a row, striking out two. Smith blew his previous save chance last Wednesday, but he still seems like the favorite for saves in San Francisco.

Rafael Devers homered in the first. The other two runs came in the fifth in a rally that started with a double to right center that really ought to have been caught and then a Devers popup that dropped in shallow right for a single. So, that wasn’t much Chandler’s fault. Still, it was rather disturbing that Chandler got just one swing and miss all night. 88 pitches, 40 swings and one miss. He’ll take a 4.30 ERA into his next start against the White Sox.

Mlodzinski was great in holding the Giants scoreless from the seventh through the ninth and would have gotten a win if Jacob Gonzalez hadn’t come up about a foot short of a walkoff homer in the ninth. Instead, the Pirates lost in 10, and now they’ll be without Mlodzinski’s services Thursday. It was assumed the Pirates would again go with the Lake Bachar-Mlodzinski pairing that they used twice last week. Bachar is still expected to start, but the Pirates will need to look elsewhere when he departs after two or three innings.

Miller struck out three and walked one, lowering his ERA to 4.01. It wasn’t the most efficient effort, but it was a step in the right direction after allowing five earned runs or more in three consecutive starts. Miller was phenomenal in his initial return from injury this season, but he entered Wednesday with a 7.18 ERA in the second half. He was going to be sent to the bullpen recently, but Emerson Hancock’s injury reopened a rotation spot. He’ll draw the Rangers at home next time out.