The Cleveland Guardians have put together one of the most impressive performances over the course of the month of September, catapulting themselves into the playoff picture with under a week left to go in the regular season. Their success can be attributed to the strong pitching from their starting rotation and bullpen, as well as dynamic offense centered around Cleveland’s “small ball” style of play, even with their middle-of-the-pack defensive metrics.
With their 15-2 overall record since September 8th, they have turned a down year into another impressive showing from a team with one of the youngest starting lineups in baseball, with an average age of 27 amongst some of their biggest contributors.
After another complete performance against Detroit on Wednesday night, Cleveland now sits alone atop the American League Central division by one game in what many have determined as a complete historic collapse on the side of the Detroit Tigers, and a truly monumental comeback for the Cleveland Guardians.
At one point, the Guardians trailed the Tigers in their division by 15.5 games, which most would view as a lost season at that point, but Cleveland is one of few teams many know as a team that can’t be counted out until the final bell.
With that final bell just around the corner, the momentum is in favor of the Guardians as they look to finish off strong over the course of these last four games.
— Bruce Drennan Show (@Bruce_Drennan) September 25, 2025
With the help of their dominant pitching, Cleveland’s pitching has allowed just two or fewer runs in 19 consecutive games, which already matches similar runs seen over the course of MLB history and tying them for the second-longest streak in modern MLB history, putting them on the verge of breaking a record held by the 1917 White Sox.
Their starting rotation has accumulated a combined 1.35 ERA as their young rotation continues to surge after early season struggles and adversity.
On the topic of MLB history, this happens to be the MLB’s 150th season in their entirety, and never before has a team suffered quite the collapse seen out of the Detroit Tigers over the two months. Just one month ago on August 25th, the Tigers held a 12.5 game lead over the Guardians, only to suffer a complete dismantling of their impressive run early on this season.
“This MVP race in the American League is absolutely incredible..
The Detroit Tigers are having a historic collapse and the Cleveland Guardians have taken over first place in the AL Central” ~ @JeffPassan #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/V2MiXhhhoC
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 25, 2025
Both Cleveland and Detroit have had their moments this season, with each side facing their strong and weak points on complete opposite ends of the season; this is the most crucial time for each team to win out as the playoffs loom with four games remaining.
Cleveland has an important series at home to close out their season against the Texas Rangers, who have since fallen out of playoff contention, while Detroit facing a red-hot Red Sox team in Boston this weekend.
Cleveland looks to complete the sweep tonight against Detroit at Progressive Field, with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 p.m.
