Herrera and Walker homer, Cardinals beat Guardians 6-5 after Cleveland had clinched division
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Iván Herrera and Jordan Walker hit home runs and the St. Louis Cardinals beat Cleveland 6-5 on Saturday night after the Guardians had already clinched the AL Central title earlier in the day.
José Ramírez and Bo Naylor homered for Cleveland, which clinched its 12th division title since 1995 when the San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals 9-0 earlier Saturday.
Miles Mikolas (9-11) allowed one run on four hits in six innings to earn his first win since July 21 when he beat the Braves in Atlanta. He was 0-3 with a 6.80 ERA in his previous nine starts.
Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 46th save in 50 chances to tie Guardians reliever Emmanuel Clase for the major league lead.
Matthew Boyd (2-2) allowed two runs on four hits and three walks and struck out six before being pulled after throwing 88 pitches in four innings.
Andrés Giménez hit an RBI double off Matthew Liberatore after Ramírez hit his 37th home run of the season off JoJo Romero earlier in the eighth inning to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 6-5.
Herrera hit his fourth home run of the season off Nick Sandlin in the seventh after Masyn Winn scored on a rocket that bounced off Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor’s glove for an error to give St. Louis a 6-1 lead.
Bo Naylor hit his 13th homer of the season into the right field bullpen to cut Cleveland’s deficit to 2-1 in the fifth.
Walker hit his fifth home run of the season to left field in the fourth inning to put St. Louis ahead 2-0.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: Placed RHP Sonny Gray (right flexor tendinitis) on the 15-day injured list and recalled RHP Kyle Leahy from Triple-A Memphis. Gray said he would have been able to keep pitching if the Cardinals had not been mathematically eliminated from postseason contention Friday night.
UP NEXT
Guardians RHP Gavin Williams (3-10, 5.12 ERA) will face Cardinals RHP Andre Pallante in St. Louis’ home finale on Sunday.
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