Hot Guardians look to complete historic comeback as they host Tigers with AL Central up for grabs

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CLEVELAND (AP) — The Detroit Tigers left Cleveland on July 6 with a commanding 15 1/2-game lead in the American League Central after a series sweep of the Guardians, who had dropped 10 straight.

When the Tigers get to Progressive Field on Tuesday, they will be trying to avoid suffering the worst collapse since baseball went to divisions in 1969.

Detroit (85-71) has a 1-game lead going into the three-game series. The Tigers were up 10 1/2 games when September started, but have gone 5-13 and have dropped six straight and nine of 10.

“This last month, a lot of people could say we were out of it. I think (players) could have started to look at their numbers and just tried to look to the offseason,” Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan said. “But we’ve been playing some really unselfish baseball, grinding together, sticking together. It’s been really fun, and we’ve got a really exciting week coming up.”

Cleveland (84-72) is an MLB-best 16-5 this month and has won 10 of 11. It has also added momentum after sweeping a three-game series last week in Detroit.

The Guardians have a 6-4 lead in the season series and need a win in one of the three games for an advantage should tiebreakers come into play.

“We couldn’t be more excited to get back home. The boys are ready, we know what is at stake, and it’s going to be a lot of fun this week,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said.

Cleveland is the first team since the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers to have a 10-game winning streak and 10-game losing skid in the same season. However, it is looking to become the first AL team to make the postseason despite having a 10-game losing streak. The Guardians would join the 2017 Dodgers, 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1951 New York Giants.

Even though the Guardians lost 6-2 to Minnesota on Sunday, they are tied with Houston for the final wild-card spot and hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series.

The Guardians have had the majors’ best pitching staff this month. Their 2.32 ERA is 1.01 better than the next closest team and a marked improvement from the 3.92 ERA it had the first five-plus months of the season.

The starting staff — 11-1 with a 2.02 ERA in September — has allowed two or fewer runs in a franchise-record 17 straight games. It is the first rotation to achieve that since the 2019 Tampa Bay Rays had a 19-game run.

Third baseman José Ramírez — who has his third career 30 home run/30 stolen base season — and Kwan have led the offense all season, but others have started to pick up the slack. Catcher Bo Naylor has an RBI in a career-high six straight games and has driven in 14 since Sept. 10.

Cleveland has a .740 OPS this month, which is third in the American League after being last for most of the season.

The Tigers are trying to avoid being compared to the 1978 Boston Red Sox, who squandered a 14-game lead in the AL East and lost a one-game playoff to the New York Yankees.

Detroit’s pitching staff had a 3.80 ERA through August, fourth-best in the American League. In its last 18 games, the ERA is 5.32, third-worst in the AL.

The Tigers’ offense has posted a collective .671 OPS thus far in September, which is 11th in the AL. The team’s OPS through August was .740, fifth-best in the AL.

Manager A.J. Hinch said after Sunday’s 6-2 loss to Atlanta that he hasn’t seen his players pouting or conceding despite the rough month.

“I’m going to remind everybody that we’re a first-place team, and right now, it’s hard for everybody to look at us that way because of the way the last week was,” Hinch said. “But we’ve got an exciting week of baseball ahead and the biggest challenge this team has faced.

“Our destiny is controlled by us against a team that’s been as hot as you can get in baseball. We get to play them in a three-game series. Sign me up.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb