The Cleveland Guardians have entered the part of their season where they can't afford to let close games slip away from them.
On Sunday against the Detroit Tigers , that prompted them to use closer Cade Smith in a way they hadn't used him the whole season.
It worked, too, because it set up Daniel Schneeman to deliver a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning for a 3-2 victory.
Cleveland improved to 73-71 with the win. The Guardians maintain a one-game lead in the third-and-final AL Wild Card spot with that record, ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays (72-72), with the Texas Rangers (71-73) an additional game behind.
It was about a lot more than Smith on Sunday, but the dominant closer certainly did his part.
The Guardians called on Smith to pitch two full innings on Sunday. It was the first time all season he'd gone that long.
Prior to this, he had three different outings of 1.2 innings, but never the full two frames.
In his two innings, Smith couldn't be touched. He faced six batters and struck out five of them.
Smith only threw 27 pitches, which is a decent amount below his season high, so that wasn't a big deal.
He was just so good. The Guardians didn't need to turn away from him.
Smith came on for the top of the ninth in a 2-2 game. It was smart management, because there's no save opportunity for a home team beyond the ninth inning. As far as saving Smith for a conventional save chance, it wasn't needed in this case.
The big righty struck out Riley Greene swinging, then got Dillon Dingler to fly out to right, before striking out Brett Callahan swinging.
The Guardians went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth against Kenley Jansen to force extras.
The Tigers had Callahan on second base to begin the top of the 10th, but then Smith shut the door entirely.
First, Smith struck out Ben Malgeri swinging.
Then, he struck out Max Clark swinging.
Finally, he got John Peck swinging.
It would've been hard for Smith to do any better.
Kyle Finnegan came on to pitch the bottom of the 10th for the Tigers, and Angel Genao began the frame on second base for Cleveland.
Patrick Bailey led off with a single, and Genao held up at third.
The next hitter, Schneeman, lined a single to right to win the ballgame.
It's exactly the way the Guardians wanted to end the weekend. They stay in a playoff position with a 18 games left to play in the regular season.
And in a big way, they can thank Smith for the work he did to keep them right where they want to be.
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