Guardians hold crucial tiebreaker that no one thought would be important a month ago

Last Wednesday, the Cleveland Guardians picked up a 6-4 win over the Tigers that almost immediately seemed to get overlooked thanks to Cleveland’s lethargic performance less than 24 hours later in a 3-0 loss to Detroit in the series finale. 

But that win, while negated by a sluggish performance, gave the Guardians the season tiebreaker over the Tigers, which could end up having a huge impact at the end of the season. 

While it seemed like the Tigers weren’t going to be much of a postseason factor when they traded away Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, they’ve managed to claw their way back into the postseason picture, and are going to be a factor in September whether the Guardians like it or not. 

The Guardians’ tiebreaker over the Tigers could loom large in September 

Although the Tigers may have looked like sellers at the trade deadline, they’ve quietly been one of the best teams in baseball over the past three months. The Tigers have gone 39-28 since the start of June, and are now 10-8 since the start of August, though they suffered a walk-off loss to the Pirates on Wednesday. 

That loss pushed Detroit’s record to 61-66 and into a tie with the Guardians, who lost 1-0 to the Giants on Wednesday. 

But even though the two teams have identical records, the Guardians are technically ahead of the Tigers in the standings due to their superior head-to-head record, which is the first thing that determines tiebreakers. 

The bad news for the Guardians is that they don’t have the tiebreaker over the Twins (who won on Wednesday and hold a Wild Card spot with a 63-65 record), Blue Jays (62-66 record) and the Rangers (62-65 record). 

The good news for the Guardians is they still have a chance to flip their tiebreakers against the Twins and Blue Jays thanks to their September series against both teams. 

They open September with a three-game series against the Blue Jays (who took two out of three when the two teams faced off in April) before facing off against the Twins in the second weekend of September. 

The Guardians lost their first series to the Twins in May and have split their two series against them since. 

The Twins also seemed like another team that would be a divisional afterthought, but they’ve gone 22-19 since the start of July and ended up being buyers at the deadline. 

The Guardians also don’t have the tiebreaker against the White Sox, but that’s not as much of a priority considering the Guardians are 5 1/2  games behind them in the American League Central standings. 

Even if the Guardians aren’t in an ideal position, there’s still enough time remaining in the schedule for them to make a postseason push (as we saw last year). Their tiebreaker advantage over the Tigers could end up helping with that. 

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