Guardians stay in AL-Central lead, beat Rays 6-1

Lane Thomas and José Ramírez hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning and rookie Joey Cantillo pitched five scoreless innings as the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 on Saturday night.

The Guardians remained three games ahead of second-place Kansas City in the division with 13 games remaining. Cleveland has the best home record in the AL at 44-27 and is 85-64 overall, second in the league to the New York Yankees.

Cantillo (2-3) gave up three hits, walked one and struck out six in just his second start at Progressive Field. The left-hander threw 6 2/3 perfect innings — and worked a career-high seven — in earning his first win Monday at the White Sox.

“Every game, you’ve obviously got to do different things, but it comes down to executing your pitches,” Cantillo said. “I was just glad to throw in front of the home crowd, honestly. It’s been about a month since I’ve done that, so it was a lot of fun.”

Thomas and Ramírez hit solo homers off Hunter Bigge. They also scored two runs apiece, while cleanup hitter Josh Naylor had a two-RBI single in the sixth that extended the Guardians’ lead to 4-0.

Naylor’s single through a drawn-in infield ignited a three-run inning against Tyler Alexander (6-5). David Fry added a sacrifice fly to plate Ramírez, who had been intentionally walked for a franchise-record 88th time.

“Some of our aggressive at-bats today worked out and we scored a lot of runs out of it,” said center fielder Thomas, who also threw out Josh Lowe at home in the fifth. “You’ve just got to go have fun out there. It’s a fun game.”

Junior Caminero had a career-high three doubles for the Rays, driving in their only run in the eighth. Tampa Bay is six games out of the final AL wild-card berth and fell to 4-5 on a 10-game trip through Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cleveland.

“Junior is super impressive and he’s going to continue to show everyone his tools for years to come,” Rays shortstop Taylor Walls said. “He’s going to have a long career here.”

Tampa Bay appeared to go in front in the fifth on Jose Siri’s single, but a replay review overturned the safe call at home on Lowe. Thomas’ throw and Austin Hedges’ tag just beat Lowe’s left hand to the plate.

“Lane saved my butt there,” Cantillo said. “That was huge.”

Alexander pitched five innings and gave up four runs in relief of Drew Rasmussen, who went two innings.