The Cleveland Guardians, at least in recent weeks, are a team of stretches.
With a thrilling, but sloppy win against the Chicago Cubs on Monday, they reached three victories in a row.
Before that, they had lost a season-high seven consecutive games.
And before that, they had won five straight.
It’s hard to explain, but at least the Guards appear to be back.
On Monday, they got to enjoy an 8-3 lead at one point, entering the seventh frame.
Their vaunted bullpen, however, collapsed for a night and relinquished the lead.
“We’re proving to ourselves we can win a number of different ways.” With the bullpen uncharacteristically struggling late against the Cubs, manager Stephen Vogt was proud of the way the @CleGuardians responded to pull out a 9-8 win at Progressive Field,” Bally Sports Cleveland tweeted.
Chicago scored four runs in the seventh inning and one in the top of the eight to tie things, to the disappointment of thousands of fans at Progressive Field.
Fortunately for Cleveland, they have two very good players in Josh Naylor and Emmanuel Clase.
Naylor brought home the winning run in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single, and Clase earned his 36th save of the season with a clean ninth frame that included two strikeouts.
Before Clase, however, Tim Herrin and Scott Barlow allowed two runs each and Peter Strzelecki one.
They are all usually reliable, but the Cubs caught all of them in an off night and the same can be said about starter Ben Lively, who couldn’t complete four innings and conceded three runs.
In addition to Naylor and Clase, the Guards had two more heroes in the evening: Jhonkensy Noel hit two gigantic home runs, and Steven Kwan had one to power the offense.
The Guardians are now 70-49 on the season, tied for the best record in the American League, and with a 3.5-game lead over the Minnesota Twins in the Central.