The Cleveland Guardians will look to put one of their more frustrating losses of the season behind them when they begin a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Rays have the best record in the American League and own a two-game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East.

Cleveland lost 3-1 in 12 innings to the visiting Minnesota Twins on Thursday despite a stellar outing by right-hander Gavin Williams, who struck out 11 and allowed two hits and no walks over seven shutout innings.

The Guardians went 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position and were held scoreless aside from Patrick Bailey’s solo homer in the fifth inning.

“Their pitching was just like ours was,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “This was a well-pitched game on both sides, and Gavin was unbelievable. That was about as good as we’ve seen from him.”

Rookie right fielder Chase DeLauter drew a fourth-inning walk to extend his career high-tying on-base streak to 15 games for the Guardians, who split the four-game series.

The Guardians used four relievers on Thursday, including right-hander Colin Holderman, who stranded automatic runners in both the 10th and 11th innings.

“When you can put up a scoreless inning in extra innings, you’re doing something, and Holdy did it twice,” Vogt said. “Our bullpen has been phenomenal all year. We just weren’t able to get that big hit.”

Left-hander Joey Cantillo (8-5, 3.74 ERA) will take the mound for the Guardians in the series opener. He allowed four runs over five-plus innings in a 7-1 home loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Cantillo, 26, has recorded at least seven strikeouts in five of his past six starts.

Cantillo is set to make his second career start against Tampa Bay. He tossed five scoreless innings in a 6-1 home win over the Rays on Sept. 14, 2024.

Tampa Bay will counter with Shane McClanahan (8-6, 3.16 ERA), who allowed six runs (four earned) over five innings during a 6-1 road loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

McClanahan, 29, gave up five hits and three walks while fanning three in his first start since July 8.

“The body felt great. Arm felt great. Obviously, those 10 days (of rest) are great for the body, but really bad for the routine,” McClanahan said. “Just looking forward to getting back to normal and having that routine and getting some things cleaned up.”

McClanahan will face the Guardians for the first time since allowing two runs over seven innings in a 2-1 loss in an AL wild-card-series game on Oct. 7, 2022. His only regular-season outing vs. Cleveland came that same season, and he permitted five runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings during a loss.

Tampa Bay is beginning a nine-game homestand after completing a 3-5 trip against the Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays coming out of the All-Star break. The Rays won three straight against Toronto before losing 3-1 on Thursday in the series finale.

“Obviously, you want to win the fourth game and get the sweep, but you’ve still got to be grateful for the three games that you won,” Rays third baseman Junior Caminero said via interpreter Kevin Vera. “We wanted to go home happy, but we’re happy going home with the series (victory).”

–Field Level Media

The Minnesota Twins return home with their chins up despite a losing road trip.

Minnesota will try to keep its confidence high when it opens a three-game series against the Athletics on Friday night in Minneapolis. The contest marks the start of a six-game homestand for the Twins, who also will host the Kansas City Royals for three games.

The Twins are coming off a 3-4 road trip. However, they closed the trek with back-to-back wins over the Cleveland Guardians, which gave manager Derek Shelton reason to believe that the team is on an upswing.

That could prove to be important as the Minnesota front office tries to decide whether to buy, stand pat or sell ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

“To bounce back, it’s one of the few times going home 3-4 that I feel good about it,” Shelton said after the Twins escaped with a 3-1, 12-inning win over the Guardians on Thursday.

The Athletics will try to spoil the good feelings for Minnesota. They are coming off back-to-back losses against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix, and they are 2-4 since returning from the All-Star break.

Injuries have decimated the Athletics, who put right-handers J.T. Ginn and Mark Leiter Jr. and infielder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer on the injured list this week. A slew of other players such as Brent Rooker, Nick Kurtz, Zack Gelof, Luis Severino and Justin Sterner also have been sidelined by injuries.

Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said the injuries are testing the team’s depth, particularly in the late innings, where he now must rely mostly on unproven hurlers.

“It’s challenging,” Kotsay said. “You look at the bullpen collectively, and there’s just not a lot of experience. There’s not a lot of guys with track records that can come in and shut down an inning. We’re going through a tough stretch here of trying to find those guys. We’re not going to stop trying. We’ll continue to make moves.”

The Twins will turn to right-hander Zebby Matthews (4-7, 5.40 ERA) as they seek their third win in a row. Matthews hopes to bounce back from his worst start of 2026 after the Chicago Cubs slammed him for 10 runs (eight earned) on nine hits in three-plus innings during a 10-1 rout on Sunday.

This will be Matthews’ second career start against the Athletics. He faced the A’s on June 4, 2025, and earned a win after holding them to one run on four hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out four.

The Athletics will counter with left-hander Jacob Lopez (4-4, 6.64 ERA), who will make his 16th appearance and 13th start of the season. He is looking for his first victory since May 24 against the San Diego Padres.

In his most recent outing, Lopez took a 5-2 loss against the Washington Nationals on Sunday after giving up two runs on two hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked two and matched his season high with six strikeouts.

In two career appearances (one start) against the Twins, Lopez is 1-1 with a 6.10 ERA. He has given up eight runs (seven earned) in 10 1/3 innings, but he also has walked only two batters while striking out 17.

–Field Level Media

With both sides attempting to gain ground in the National League wild-card race, the St. Louis Cardinals host the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a three-game series on Friday night.

The Cardinals have dropped five of seven games since the All-Star break and sit 1 1/2 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final NL wild-card spot. St. Louis also is a half-game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are currently the first NL team out of the playoff picture.

Trying to stay afloat in the playoff chase, the Reds enter their third consecutive road set riding a pair of series victories. Cincinnati, which is six games behind the Diamondbacks, took two of three from both the Colorado Rockies and the Seattle Mariners.

Since St. Louis’ Dustin May hurled a one-hit shutout against the San Diego Padres on June 15, little has gone right for the right-hander. In five starts since the gem, May (5-7, 4.78 ERA) is 0-1 with a 9.92 ERA.

May threw five innings for the first time in more than a month on Saturday, but he surrendered five runs on eight hits while striking out six and walking four in a 5-3 loss at Arizona.

Despite May’s rough patch, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has confidence the 28-year-old can find his rhythm again.

“He’s competed well. He went through a stretch there where he gave us some really good outings,” Marmol said. “After the complete game, there have been some ups and downs, but he’s good enough to get out of this.”

Making the 91st appearance (77th start) of his major league career, May will face Cincinnati for the first time.

Among the Reds getting their first look at May will be All-Star first baseman Sal Stewart. The 22-year-old ranks fourth in the majors with 74 RBIs after knocking in nine runs across the club’s first two series since the midseason break.

“I think there are guys that relish those opportunities,” Cincinnati manager Terry Francona said of Stewart’s success with runners on base. “He’s so strong and he’s got great hitter’s hands. The ball just jumps off his bat.”

Despite the RBI surge, Stewart is batting just .130 (3-for-23) since the break.

On the mound, Rhett Lowder (3-7, 5.75 ERA) will be chasing a bounce-back effort for Cincinnati.

After appearing as a starter for his first 13 outings of the year, Lowder made three appearances out of the bullpen before re-emerging in the rotation after the All-Star break. Last time out, the 24-year-old right-hander lasted just 2 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs on 11 hits in a 10-3 loss to the Rockies on Saturday in Denver. He struck out two and didn’t walk a batter.

“(Colorado) was just being aggressive and I was probably leaving too many thick pitches for them. Balls were just finding holes,” Lowder said of that outing. “It was very frustrating.”

Lowder has thrown eight scoreless innings across a pair of starts against the Cardinals during his career. He faced St. Louis on June 7, allowing just one hit but walking five across three scoreless innings in a no-decision. The Reds lost 5-3.

–Field Level Media