CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Guardians are on the verge of making baseball history, having erased a 12.5-game deficit to the Detroit Tigers. If they complete the comeback, they’ll surpass the 1978 Yankees for the largest deficit overcome since Major League Baseball divisional play began in 1969.
On the latest episode of the Terry’s Talkin’ podcast, cleveland.com columnist Terry Pluto explained that both teams have to be living with fear in the back of their minds as their series plays out at Progressive Field this week.
“Obviously, if you’re the Tigers, like, ‘Do we want to have the most cataclysmic collapse in the history of baseball?’ I mean, that’s hanging over you now,”
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“But if you’re the Guardians, you fought so hard to get to this point and you have these games at home and the last thing you want to do is dump five out of six or something like this.”
What makes this comeback even more remarkable is how it happened – a perfect storm of the Tigers’ implosion combined with the Guardians’ defensive excellence and timely contributions from unexpected sources.
According to FanGraphs data shared on the podcast, the Tigers’ once-dominant pitching staff has completely collapsed.
“The Tigers team ERA through July 8th was 3.46. Since July 8th, it’s 4.8,” host David Campbell revealed.
Meanwhile, the Guardians have been playing at an elite level defensively, with metrics suggesting they’re not just good – they’re historically good.
“Not only do the Guardians lead the league in preventing baserunners from taking an extra base, they’ve saved more than twice as many runs as the next best team in that category,” Campbell explained, citing FanGraphs data.
This defensive dominance starts with players like Steven Kwan, who ranks second in the majors in runs saved according to Fielding Bible, an impressive achievement for a left fielder. But the defensive transformation also coincided with a strategic realignment in the infield.
“They’re back to playing that elite defense again,” Pluto noted. “And I really think a lot of it corresponded with when Brayan Rocchio goes to second and Gabriel Arias to short… Remember they opened the season the opposite way. Rocchio was at short, and Arias at second.”
The Guardians have also received unexpected offensive contributions, none more surprising than catcher Bo Naylor’s sudden emergence as a legitimate threat at the plate.
“Where did Bo Naylor come from? What about these hits and everything? How about that?” Pluto asked incredulously on the podcast.
After hitting just .161 earlier in the season, Naylor has transformed into a run-producing machine in September, driving in runs in six straight games – the longest streak by a Cleveland catcher since Victor Martinez in 2007.
This combination of elite defense, improving pitchers, and unexpected offensive contributions has the Guardians playing “playoff baseball” a month early.
“They’ve allowed the fewest runs in September of any team in the majors,” Pluto noted. “Most of these games have been pretty close. I mean, they’ve not been 7-2 games at all. They probably won’t be this week either.”
Here’s the podcast for this week:
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You can find previous podcasts below.