Guardians end losing skid thanks to five unanswered runs in win over Twins

The Cleveland Guardians entered the second part of Wednesday's doubleheader in Minnesota, having lost five straight games, including the resumption of Monday's suspended affair. After finding themselves down a run early, it appeared a sixth straight loss was inevitable, but luckily, the Guardians lineup had a different idea.

Cleveland would take the lead in the 6th inning thanks to Gabriel Arias drawing a bases-loaded walk with one out in the inning and Nolan Jones driving in a run of his own via a sacrifice fly. The Guardians claiming the lead here was certainly a nice development, considering the last time they were ahead was in the 1st inning of their previous game, a game that began play on Monday and finished earlier in the day on Wednesday.

Of course, simply having a lead is never good enough. The Guardians would tack on three more runs, highlighted by Carlos Santana's second home run of the day (the first came in the suspended game). Even though it was not a save situation, Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase came on in the bottom of the 9th, taking care of business with relative ease, securing a 5-1 victory for Cleveland, bringing their five-game losing streak to an overdue end.

Usually, bringing a closer into a non-save situation is far from ideal. However, considering the extended break in play in addition to Cleveland's upcoming series with Detroit, Clase getting a little bit of work in seems to be the right move here. The last thing the Guardians need in this crucial series is a closer that is not able to close games against the team that happens to lead the division.

With the Guardians playing the Twins and Tigers in their AL Central opponent-filled schedule, this was a very important week of baseball. Splitting their series with Minnesota (for now) is a solid start (Tuesday's postponed game will be made up in September), but they will have their hands full against Detroit. Cleveland is currently in 4th place in the division, trailing first-place Detroit by 6 games, and how this four-game set plays out may end up playing a major factor in how things shake out in the AL Central when the season comes to an end.