The time is now for the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians. After the Guardians swept the Tigers last week at Comerica Park, and then the Tigers were swept by the lowly Atlanta Braves over the weekend, the Guardians enter the final six games of the MLB season just one game behind the Tigers for the AL Central division lead.
Things have completely turned around, as Detroit had as much as a 9.5-game lead earlier this month.
Now, the two will start another three-game set on Tuesday, but this time in Cleveland.
Detroit does control its destiny
Entering the second-to-last series of the MLB season, Detroit does still control its own destiny to earn the AL Central crown.
After the sweep of the Tigers last week, Cleveland now controls the season series between the two AL rivals, six games to four, with three left to be played between the two. If the Tigers beat Cleveland two games out of three, it will make it very hard for Cleveland to recover from that deficit.
However, the Tigers have had a really hard time picking up victories in September. Detroit is 5-13 since Sep. 1, and has seen a division lead that was once as big as 14.5 games in the summer months completely go away.
You have to give a lot of credit to Guardians' manager Stephen Vogt for keeping his team engaged when they were really close to being on the verge of mathematical elimination. All Cleveland did was rattle off eight straight wins, and pick up 14 wins in a 16-game stretch in September.
Tarik Skubal is set to start the series opener on Tuesday.
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