The best team in baseball plays in Cleveland.

The Guardians opened a four-game series with a 10-3 rout of the next-best team in the American League, the Baltimore Orioles, on Thursday night.

Cleveland posted its fourth win in a row and have the top record in baseball at 66-42.

That doesn’t mean the Guardians are going to win the World Series, but it does mean two things:

1.    They are in the conversation.

2.    The rest of the season is going to be a lot of fun.

IS IT FRY-DAY YET?

Baltimore took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by All-Star shortstop Gunnar Henderson.

Cleveland came back with two in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Jose Ramirez and an RBI single by Josh Naylor.

In the bottom of the third, David Fry blasted a three-run homer to increase Cleveland’s lead to 5-2. That had to feel good, because Fry did not go deep in June or July.

Back in 2015, I was the PA announcer for the Lake County Captains in the Indians’ minor league system. We had Bobby Bradley and Yu-Cheng Chang make it to Cleveland, but the biggest star was Anthony Santander.

Of course, he now plays for the Orioles, and he hit his 32nd homer of the year. That’s second in the AL behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (39).

MAKE JOSE THE MAYOR

Jose Ramirez hit his fourth home run of the week, and he had Wednesday off! Ramirez has 28 dingers this season. Lane Thomas scored on the two-run shot, and Cleveland was up 7-2.

But they weren’t close to being finished. Later in the seventh, Bo Naylor smashed a three-run homer into the left-center field bleachers. Brother Josh and Tyler Freeman scored, and the Guardians had a 10-2 lead.

Baltimore scored its other run in the eighth on a fielder’s choice by another All-Star, catcher Adley Rutschman.

With so much offense, Ben Lively (10-6) didn’t need to have a good game on the mound, but he did! In six innings, Lively gave up four hits and two runs.

Fun fact: The Guardians lead the last-place Chicago White Sox by 40.5 games with two months to go in the season. The Sox (27-84) have lost 17 straight games and are challenging the 1962 New York Mets for “worst team ever” honors.

The series will continue tonight at 7:10. Carlos Carrasco (3-9) will get another chance to start for the Guardians. The Orioles will counter with Dean Kremer (4-7).