The footsteps are getting louder.
The Cleveland Guardians are pulling ever closer to the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central Division.
They're a game closer after Thursday afternoon, too.
The Tigers sent Tarik Skubal to the mound, but it didn't matter. The Guardians won, 3-1.
Jhonkensy Noel hit a solo homer off Skubal.
Then in the seventh, Jose Ramirez made the Detroit bullpen pay by turning on a home run deep and gone to right field for the final margin.
It's seven straight wins for the Guardians.
More importantly, they're just 3.5 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central with 10 games to play -- including three more against Detroit.
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Cleveland has won 12 of its last 13 games.
In those wins, they have allowed zero runs three times, one run four times, two runs three times and had a game allowing four and a game allowing five.
On July 6, the Guardians lost to the Tigers to push their losing streak to 10 games and their record to eight games below .500.
Now, they're 10 games above .500 at 81-71.
They could also still catch the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card standings. The Red Sox lost to the Athletics on Thursday afternoon.
With that defeat, the Guardians are just 1.5 games behind Boston.
If Cleveland keeps winning, there's a great chance at the Guardians playing postseason baseball.
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