CLEVELAND -- After a season filled with stops, starts and trips to the injured list, Aaron Civale took the mound Friday for his penultimate start of the regular season.

And while Civale probably won’t be called upon to start one of the games in the Guardians’ best-of-three Wild Card Series next weekend, Friday’s start was a perfect of example of how dangerous he could be in the American League Division Series, as he twirled six strong innings, allowing three runs (two earned) with five strikeouts and no walks in Cleveland’s 6-3 win over the Royals at Progressive Field.

“I’m just trying to stay as locked in as I can when I pitch,” Civale said. “There’s an energy that’s been visible throughout this team the entire year, and I’m just trying to play off that.”

The start was another strong outing for Civale, who has endured an up-and-down season that’s included three trips to the injured list. After starting the season with a 7.84 ERA through seven starts, Civale was placed on the IL in May with a left glute injury.

After making his return in June, Civale lasted five starts before landing back on the shelf with a right wrist injury. He came back again in August and lasted four starts before making his third trip to the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. He returned back to the active roster on Sept. 20, and has now turned in three starts of at least five innings since coming back.

“I know the season didn’t start out great and that he’d been interrupted a couple times, but he can pitch,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “He can spin it, and we just want to keep him going so if we keep going maybe he can pitch.”

A day prior, the Guardians announced that they’d switched Civale and Zach Plesac in the rotation, which lines Civale up to start in the final game of the regular season on Wednesday. If the Guardians do end up advancing past the Wild Card Series, Civale is set up to start in the best-of-five ALDS.

"This way Aaron is scheduled to start Friday and that gives him another opportunity to start on Wednesday,” Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said Thursday. “As we've dialogued with Aaron, we think his best role to impact the team is in a starting role. This positions him best to be able to do that. … There are a lot of different considerations we're weighing.”

Francona echoed Antonetti’s sentiment that the rotation is the best place for Civale, who has never appeared out of the bullpen in his career.

“We talked to Civale and it’s probably not realistic that he needs to pitch out of the bullpen that first series,” Francona said pregame. “If we’re fortunate enough to move on, we’re going to need a starter, so you try to answer as many questions as you can.”

The only runs the Royals were able to generate off Civale on Friday came on the longball. In the third inning, Civale left a cutter in the middle of the plate, which Drew Waters launched for a two-run home run. Michael Massey followed two innings later with a homer of his own off a cutter up in the zone.

“Yeah, one bad location, other one, 50-50, I don't know,” Civale said of the home runs. “They hit them pretty good.”

After just one run through five innings, the Guardians’ offense woke up in the sixth when José Ramírez launched a go-ahead three-run home run against Royals starter Brady Singer. Singer’s day ended later in the inning when Austin Hedges broke an 0-for-36 slump with an RBI single off the 19-foot wall in left field to extend Cleveland’s lead.

Ramírez’s home run tied him with Al Rosen for 10th in Cleveland history.

“Offensively, we're never out of the game. Defensively, we're always going to be in a game,” Civale said. “It’s a great way to play baseball."

After Cody Morris threw two strong innings in his first relief appearance of the year, closer Emmanuel Clase wiped out the Royals in the ninth to lock down his 40th save of the year. Once Clase finished off Salvador Perez to end the game, he pumped his fist in celebration as fireworks went off in center field. Clase and the Guardians are hoping next Friday’s Wild Card Series opener ends in the same way.

“I feel like nobody believed in us, so that gives us real energy to keep going and keep proving everybody wrong,” Clase said through interpreter Agustin Rivero. “We're just here for the ring.”