Eduardo Valencia hits walk-off homer vs. Pirates

With the White Sox losing, the Guardians have clinched the AL Central and will host the Wild Card series between the two clubs. Rocchio homered from both sides of the plate. His first just made it out down the left field line, while the second, to right, had a little more room to spare. Neither were barrels, though. It’s Rocchio’s second two-homer game of the month, as well as his second in 434 career games dating back to 2023. He has more homers (15) and steals (20) this year than in his previous 281 games over his first two-plus seasons (13 homers, 18 steals).

All of the runs came in the first, which featured two doubles and two singles. Bibee ended up with a quality start anyway, striking out six, and got the victory to improve to 7-15 with a 4.36 ERA. Now the Guardians will have to decide whether to go with him or Foster Griffin as their third starter in the Wild Card. The White Sox fare a little better against lefties than righties, but Griffin has performed better in his two starts against the team this year than Bibee has in his two.

Wacha got the 5 2/3 innings he needed tonight to finish with 200 for the first time. He’ll be the only American Leaguer to reach that mark this year. Wacha’s previous high was 191 1/3 innings way back in 2015. That was one of just two times in his first 11 seasons that he qualified for the ERA title, but he’s done so three straight years now. Wacha did take the loss tonight, leaving him 9-10 with a 3.32 ERA. He fanned four to finish at 158 strikeouts. That ties his previous high from 2017.

Bailey his balls 342 and 380 feet for his first career two-homer game. He’s hit an adequate .231/.296/.396 with nine homers in 81 games since arriving from San Francisco in May. He was at .146/.213/.183 in 30 games when he was traded.

Caglianone is on a nice little surge to end the year, having collected 12 hits in his last six games. That he has 23 homers and 31 doubles this year isn’t much of a surprise, but his .287 average is extremely impressive. He came in at .157 in 62 games as a rookie. .157!

Turang turned a 2-1 for the Brewers into a 3-2 lead with his two-run shot off Quinn Mathews. The 26-year-old has homered 21 times, and he’s just one run driven in short of his first 100-RBI campaign. There are obviously a lot of good players on the Brew Crew, but Turang is one of the key reasons they’ve been as good as anyone in the sport in 2026. Fantasy managers should be as grateful as Milwaukee is.

Burleson doubled the Cardinals’ lead to 2-0 with his 26th homer of the season. The Brewers would score the next three in another loss for St. Louis. That roundtripper also gives Burleson 116 RBI, which is best in all of baseball. The Cardinals won’t play in October, but that’s not Burleson’s fault; he’s been outstanding for the majority of the year.

Ashby got the final six outs to pick up his fourth save of the campaign. The southpaw didn’t allow a hit and struck out two while lowering his ERA to a healthy 3.12. Ashby may not be asked to convert saves in the postseason, but he’s going to be someone the Brewers turn to in high-leverage situations. They should, anyway.

Mathews struck out seven against two walks and allowed five hits. The 25-year-old gave up a two-run shot to Brice Turang, but outside of that it was a solid outing for the former top prospect. Outside of an ugly start where he allowed seven runs, Mathews pitched well in his opportunity, and he threw better than a (still respectable) 3.83 ERA might suggest. It would be a surprise if he wasn’t a member of the rotation for St. Louis to open 2027.

Lopez was injured while stepping on first base as he ran out a bunt attempt. He’ll likely be in the lineup with the Rangers facing a righty tomorrow.