CLEVELAND -- With runners on the corners and nobody out in the sixth inning on Tuesday, chants of “Skuuuu-ballllll” echoed across Progressive Field, as a raucous crowd sensed an opportunity. The Guardians, who were scoreless, finally had an opportunity against Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, the presumptive American League Cy Young Award favorite.
For some, perhaps what unfolded in an inning that began with a leadoff bunt by Steven Kwan is best described as chaos. For those in northeast Ohio, it was the home team playing the hits for its fan base -- which is beginning to taste postseason baseball returning to this ballpark.
The Guardians’ three-run rally against Skubal in the sixth launched them to a 5-2 win over the Tigers in the opener of a critical three-game series. Cleveland erased a 2-0 deficit by putting the ball in play and forcing the issue with its baserunning. In other words: Guards Ball.
More importantly, the rally (combined with six strong innings by Gavin Williams) launched Cleveland (85-72) into first place in the American League Central because it secured the season series over Detroit (85-72) -- which will serve as the first tiebreaker if they have identical records after Game 162 this weekend.
“That whole inning was the things that we talk about, we preach, we work on,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “The guys executed outstanding.”
The Guardians are suddenly in first place for the first time since April 22, amid a 17-5 start to September. They trailed Detroit in the division by 15 1/2 games entering play on July 9 and by 10 1/2 games entering September. The Tigers now sit in the final Wild Card spot, a game ahead of the Astros, against whom they own the tiebreaker. If the season ended today, the Guardians and Tigers would face off in the Wild Card Series next week at Progressive Field.
For all intents and purposes, Cleveland has been playing playoff-esque games for weeks now, and a playoff atmosphere enveloped Progressive Field on Tuesday. An announced crowd of 29,571 packed the ballpark -- fulfilling the Sunday evening plea by Vogt. A crowd full of juice brought it from pitch one by Williams, and after each of his career-high-tying 12 strikeouts.
Williams struck out Dillon Dingler to end the sixth to put a bow on his outing (six innings, two runs), and the Guardians did not wait any longer to capitalize on his performance. Kwan led off the bottom half of the inning with a bunt single, and Angel Martínez followed by also dropping down a bunt.
Skubal fielded the bunt and tried to flip it between his legs, but it sailed over first baseman Spencer Torkelson's head into foul territory down the right-field line. The throw was the farthest a ball in play went in the inning.
José Ramírez drove in Kwan with an RBI infield single. David Fry was then forced to exit after a Skubal offering (which was ruled a foul ball) hit him in the face. Skubal appeared immediately shaken, and once play resumed, he threw a wild pitch that brought home Martínez.
A Skubal balk moved Ramírez to third, and Gabriel Arias hit an RBI groundout.
"Did you watch the inning?” said Skubal, who is the first former Cy Young winner with an error, a wild pitch and a balk in the same inning, per OptaSTATS. “I mean, two bunt singles, a swinging bunt, a lot of unfortunate things kind of happened there and unlucky things happened there to end up giving up three and giving up the lead."
"Obviously in those situations, it gets loud,” Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler said. “None of those balls leaving the infield, it's very frustrating for us. But that tells you what kind of team they are. They'll put pressure on us, get the bat on the ball and try to produce in those situations."
The Guardians have spent the past month capitalizing on their situations. They were down, but not out, of the AL postseason race. After they secured a series win over the Mariners but missed an opportunity at a sweep to finish the month of August, they did not shy away from the fact that they would need to have a big final month to make it to October.
“We understood the position we were in. We knew we were going to have to win a lot of games,” utility man Daniel Schneemann said Tuesday. “We’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”
That’s been their mantra for much of this season, certainly in September. All it’s done is get them a few wins away from punching a postseason ticket that would be one of the most stunning in baseball history.
No team has erased a 15 1/2-game deficit to win their division (since 1969) or their league (pre-1969). Could they have envisioned getting to this point?
“You kind of have to believe that, right?” Kwan said. “Maybe be a little delusional in a long season like that. Yeah, I mean, anything's possible. You’re never completely out of it, and that's the beauty of baseball.”