DETROIT -- A broom conspicuously stood in the middle of the Guardians’ clubhouse at Comerica Park on Thursday afternoon, its blue body propped up against a black leather chair seated immediately in front of the entryway. Sure, it could have been there for any number of reasons, but it was hard to miss on this day.
The Guardians beat the Tigers, 3-1, on Thursday to complete a four-game sweep of its AL Central rival. It marked Cleveland’s first four-game sweep of Detroit since July 15-18, 2019 and its first at Comerica Park since Sept. 1-3, 2017 (which included a doubleheader).
The Guardians won their sixth straight game to improve to 30-22 this season, while a Tigers team that many picked to win the AL Central title this preseason fell to 20-31 and 9 1/2 games behind division-leading Cleveland.
“The results speak for themselves,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I mean, it was tough. Obviously, the series on the whole, there are a lot of games to win within a four-game series. We won zero. You look at execution, you look at the timeliness of when things happen, coming up big in a big spot, I mean, they won every aspect.”
Comerica Park has been good to the Guardians over the past year, and you could even go further back to Cleveland’s win in Game 4 of the ALDS two years ago that kept its season alive. The Guardians have won 10 of their past 11 regular-season games in this ballpark.
Cleveland’s lone loss over that span came on May 25, 2025. Lefty Tarik Sklubal threw a shutout on 94 pitches to lead the Tigers to a 5-0 win. Around one year later, Cleveland (which is now 6-1 halfway through its stretch of 13 games in as many days) flipped the script.
“After a couple of emotional wins back to back, it could be easy to show up today on your heels,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “But our guys came out ready to rock.”
These two teams have played one another remarkably close over the past four-plus seasons, building a mutual respect factor along the way. Since 2022, the Guardians lead the regular-season series 33-30. It’s tied, 4-4, in the postseason. The Guardians won the five-game AL Division Series in '24. The Tigers won the three-game AL Wild Card Series in ‘25.
Things were close again this week. After an 8-2 win on Monday, the Guardians won the final three games by a combined four runs.
"Everyone's just doing their part and kind of feeding off each other,” starter Joey Cantillo said of the Guardians, who are 14-6 in May.
Cantillo needed 47 pitches to get through the first two innings on Thursday, including 32 in the first inning. The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs via a single by Kevin McGonigle, a double by Dillon Dingler and a two-out walk to Jahmai Jones -- the latter of which prompted a mound visit by pitching coach Carl Willis.
Cantillo got Spencer Torkelson to fly out to right fielder Chase DeLauter on his first pitch after that visit.
“Carl just said throw my best [stuff] over the plate,” Cantillo said. “I was kind of feeling my way through some things and not necessarily going with my best stuff early. That put us in a tough spot there, but we were able to make some adjustments to get through that inning and settle in.”
Cantillo threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He worked around three hits and three walks and struck out six on 98 pitches (including 67 strikes). Matt Festa, Shawn Armstrong, Tim Herrin, Codi Heuer and Gaddis combined to allow one run on three hits and one walk with seven strikeouts.
Shortstop Brayan Rocchio jumpstarted the Guardians’ offense with a 3-for-3 day out of the No. 9 spot in the lineup. He hit a two-out double in the third inning and scored immediately on a double by leadoff man Daniel Schneemann -- who scored on a José Ramírez RBI single.
Catcher Patrick Bailey provided an insurance run with a leadoff homer in the eighth inning. He also went 4-for-5 in ABS challenges, one of which resulted in Detroit's Hao-Yu Lee being called out on strikes in the second.
These two teams will meet again beginning June 12 in Cleveland, and we know there’s a long way to go this year. The Guardians were 29-23 after their series win in Detroit last May. They fell to a season-high eight games under .500 (40-48) when the Tigers came back with a sweep in Progressive Field from July 4-6.
“We’ve got to compete and keep fighting until the end of the year," Rocchio said.