Guardians' final out vs. White Sox perfectly symbolized budding rivalry

On Wednesday, the Cleveland Guardians picked up a much-needed win over the Chicago White Sox. 

And while the lasting legacy of the game may be Kahlil Watson authoring the first signature game of his Guardians career with three RBI, the biggest play of the game came at the end when Kyle Manzardo used every inch of his 5-foot-11 frame to dive to first base and get the speedy Branden Montgomery before he could get to first base. 

Although Montgomery’s ball only had an expected batting average of .150, Manzardo got a bit of a late start to it since he was shading toward second base. Couple that with Montgomery’s  stellar sprint speed (85th percentile), and all of sudden it looked like he was going to beat Manzardo to the bag and bring in the tying run. 

But Manzardo took matters into his own hands by giving his body up to tag the bag before removing his hand so it didn’t get stepped on by Montgomery. It was the perfect encapsulation of the intensity of Cleveland’s three-game series against the White Sox. 

The Guardians made a clear statement against the White Sox

While the White Sox were able to take advantage of that intensity in the first two games of the series, and were able to pick up two close wins, the Guardians finally threw their counterpunch on Wednesday thanks to another strong start from Tanner Bibee that was aided by Watson driving in three of Cleveland’s four runs. 

“It just shows that this team is resilient,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt told reporters after the game. “This team can fight. Nothing's going to knock us down. … We're going to have some speed bumps, but we're going to always show up ready to win.”

Manzardo’s heroics wouldn’t have been needed had the Guardians not hit a huge speed bump in the ninth inning when Cade Smith allowed back-to-back two-out home runs to Montgomery and Randall Grichuk that tied the game at three. 

He was then relieved by Armstrong, who put together his best outing of the year by tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings with two walks. Not only did he clean up Smith’s mess in the ninth inning, but he also wiggled out of a jam in the tenth inning after his offense was only able to provide him one run in the top of the inning. 

In the first two games of the series, the Guardians weren’t able to do enough to take advantage of strong performances from some of the unheralded players on their roster. But they finally took advantage of that on Wednesday via Watson’s big hit and Armstrong’s gritty pitching performance that was highlighted by Manzardo's fantastic game-ending play. 

A week from today, the Guardians will face off against the White Sox again in a three-game series at Progressive Field. If this series was any indication, it's going to be must-see TV.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow