Cleveland’s magical run continued Tuesday night, as the Guardians rallied to beat Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers 5-2 and forge a tie for first place in the AL Central.
The Guardians (85-72) have won 11 of their last 12 games and 16 of their last 18, erasing the 10-game lead that Detroit held as recently as Sept. 6. The Tigers (85-72) have lost seven straight and 10 of their last 11 games.
Skubal cruised through his first five innings, allowing no runs on just two hits, before the wheels came off in the sixth. Cleveland scored three runs (two unearned) in the frame despite not hitting a ball out of the infield. The Guardians had two infield singles, a bunt single, and an RBI-groundout in the frame, while also taking advantage of a series of mistakes by Skubal — throwing error, a balk and a wild pitch.
The sixth inning also featured a frightening moment when Cleveland’s David Fry, squaring around to bunt, took a 99 mph fastball from Skubal off his face, crumpling to the dirt as Skubal reacted with distress. Fry eventually rose and got into a cart on his own. He was initially taken to Lutheran Medical Center and was later transferred to the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus for further testing and observation. He will likely be held overnight. The Guardians will have an update on his condition Wednesday.
The teams, which both have five games left in the regular season, meet again Wednesday in Cleveland.
“From impossible to first place”
The @CleGuardians are ROLLING! pic.twitter.com/v2LjmcZxFc
— MLB (@MLB) September 24, 2025
‘Guards Ball’ rules the night
How do you counter the best pitcher on the planet?
Bunt. Bunt again. Slap a 66-mph chopper to a safe spot on the infield. Score on a wild pitch. Advance on a balk. Score on a groundout. That formula, the best example to date of the “Guards Ball” brand Cleveland has employed for a few years, resulted in three runs and the lead in the sixth inning without the ball ever leaving the infield.
Well, OK, it did leave the infield once: when Skubal fielded Martínez’s bunt down the first-base line and, hunched forward toward home plate, snapped the ball between his legs like an NFL center. The ball sailed over the head of Spencer Torkelson, Martínez and Steven Kwan advanced a base and set in motion a flurry of zaniness that flipped the script for the series opener. The Guardians tote a team OPS of .670, which ranks ahead of only the pitiful lineups of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies, so resorting to a chaos-creation attack can come out of necessity, especially against a pitcher as daunting as Skubal. — Zack Meisel, Guardians beat writer
A whole inning of what we like to call #GuardsBall. pic.twitter.com/OfvUTP0FRW
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) September 24, 2025
A botched snap and a bombshell inning
If the Tigers don’t find a way to save their season, the image will live in infamy. There was Skubal, fielding a bunt to the first-base side. There was Skubal, the best pitcher in the American League, inexplicably trying to flip the ball between his legs, back turned away from first. What looked like an errant football snap sailed over Torkelson’s head and rolled deep down the first-base line. Kwan, who had just reached on a bunt single, wheeled toward third. Martínez advanced to second. That was only the start of a ridiculous inning where the Guardians scored three runs despite not hitting a ball out of the infield. In the middle of all that, Fry took a fastball off his face while attempting to bunt, leaving Skubal visibly rattled as Fry was carted off the field.
“It was straight to the face,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said after the game. “We’re all thinking about David and his family right now. Obviously, we’re glad he is OK, but obviously it’s a really scary moment.”
Fry was taken to a hospital for further testing.
In the biggest game of the Tigers’ season so far, Skubal had mostly answered the bell. He limited Cleveland to two hits through five innings, powering triple-digit fastballs and twirling nasty changeups. But in the sixth, self-inflicted wounds unraveled Skubal’s outing and finally erased the Tigers’ once-mighty AL Central lead.
Skubal made the error, threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score and also balked a runner to third, allowing the Guardians to gain a crucial 90 feet.
After the inning, Skubal walked into the dugout, sat down and flung his hat underneath the bench. — Cody Stavenhagen, Tigers beat writer
Cleveland’s David Fry leaves the field in a cart after he was hit in the face by a foul ball in the sixth inning. (David Richard / Imagn Images)
Another top performance from Cleveland’s rotation
The Guardians’ starting pitching train kept chugging along, as Gavin Williams tied a career high with 12 strikeouts across six innings. Cleveland’s starters own a 1.34 ERA over their last 18 games. No starter has allowed more than two runs in any game in that span.
Williams surrendered two runs, though the first wasn’t really his fault, as Martínez misjudged a ball in center field, resulting in a double. Riley Greene whacked a 96-mph fastball that snuck over the right-field fence for Detroit’s second run. Other than that, Williams, who has blossomed into the staff ace this season, was masterful. He owns a 2.59 ERA over his last 24 starts. He wiggled out of a fourth-inning bases-loaded jam with a pair of strikeouts, and as he walked off the mound, the typically laid-back hurler let out a pair of primal shouts. — Meisel
A costly mistake and an odd managerial decision
The Tigers were still in the game with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Tommy Kahnle was on the mound, facing nine-hole hitter Austin Hedges, who entered play with a .149 batting average. Kahnle walked Hedges to bring up leadoff man Kwan. Kwan hits left-handed, and rather than turning to a left-hander such as Tyler Holton, Hinch inserted the right-handed Kyle Finnegan — this despite the fact Kwan has a .774 OPS against righties compared to a .590 OPS against righties. Kwan promptly hit an opposite-field double. Then Vogt inserted the left-handed Daniel Schneemann in place of switch-hitter Martinez. Schneemann poked a single into right field to bring home both Hedges and Kwan.
Despite obsessing over matchups all season, the Tigers entered this series with only two lefties in their bullpen and other important relievers stuck in the option cycle.
“I’m not as concerned about handedness as maybe some people,” Hinch said before the game.
But because of a costly walk and a bad matchup, the Guardians padded their lead and sent the Tigers further into a tailspin. — Stavenhagen
(Photo: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
