DETROIT — As Tim Herrin took in the atmosphere at Comerica Park with his teammates on Tuesday, there was a familiar feeling in the air.
Nearly a year ago, the Guardians and Tigers were at this ballpark, duking it out in what ultimately was an instant-classic American League Division Series. On Tuesday, the rivals reunited for a series that could have a lot to say about the postseason race over the next 13 days.
“We talked about it even in BP today, and in the bullpen during the game,” Herrin said. “This kind of feels like a playoff atmosphere — for us anyway. Just where we’re at right now. Every game is kind of a playoff. We can’t afford to slip or lose any ground right now.”
Herrin relayed that sentiment after another epic finish for his club in Detroit. The Guardians overcame a blown save by closer Cade Smith with two outs in the ninth inning by scoring four runs in the 10th to beat the Tigers, 7-5, in the opener of a critical three-game series.
“It just shows the resilience of this group all year,” manager Stephen Vogt said of the Guardians getting off the mat in the 10th. “That game was tight. That game was intense the whole way.”
At 79-71, the Guardians are eight games over .500 (tied for a season high) for the first time since May 13, when they were 25-17. They have opened September with an 11-4 burst that has included wins in 10 of their past 11 games.
Cleveland is 2 1/2 games behind Boston (82-69) for the final AL Wild Card spot. And suddenly — with 12 games remaining in the regular season — the Guardians are just 5 1/2 games behind the Tigers (85-66) for the AL Central lead.
The Guardians led, 3-2, with two outs in the ninth when Smith surrendered a game-tying solo homer to Kerry Carpenter on a 2-1, 99 mph four-seamer up and on the outer half of the plate. Cleveland responded by sending eight hitters to the plate in the top of the 10th, four of whom tallied an extra-base hit.
Steven Kwan doubled, Angel Martínez tripled, and José Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo followed with back-to-back doubles. It marked the first time in the Expansion Era (since 1961) that Cleveland recorded four extra-base hits in consecutive plate appearances in an extra inning.
“To get gut-punched like that on the last hitter of the game … and then our guys come out and put up four,” Vogt said. “Just the resilience of this group, it was so much fun to watch.”
Every club displays its share of resiliency over the course of a 162-game season. But given what the Guardians have gone through, the late-inning circumstances of Tuesday night pale in comparison.
Cleveland has willed itself back into the postseason picture on multiple occasions this summer when its chances appeared to be waning. A 10-game losing streak in July? A 1-9 stretch in August? They’ve overcome it.
And here they sit in mid-September with their hopes very much alive. The Guardians are not only still in contention for a Wild Card spot, but if Tuesday is any indication, they aren’t ready to hand the division crown over to the Tigers just yet, either.
All this from a team that was 40-48 on July 6, when Detroit swept the Guardians at Progressive Field for their 10th consecutive loss.
“It speaks to everybody in the organization, whether it’s players, coaches, staff,” said Herrin, who struck out three over a scoreless one-inning appearance. “No matter how things are going, we always believe that we can win, no matter what the stats say, the underlying numbers, whatever.”
The last time the Guardians were eight games over .500 four months ago, their postseason chances were 47 percent, according to FanGraphs. They improved from 10.9 percent entering Tuesday to 15.1 percent following the win.
It could be tempting to start pondering the math behind what it will take to punch a ticket, but the Guardians know it won’t do them any good.
Right now, as much as they acknowledge it’s cliché — or a “lazy and boring,” answer as Kwan put it — they’re taking things one game at a time.
“It’s just riding momentum, Kwan said. “We’ve had a couple of good strings before this, and I think it’s just being able to rely on that. Just one game at a time, one batter at a time, one hitter at a time. And then hopefully, we’ll look up later in the month and we like what we see.”
