{"id":178291,"date":"2025-09-24T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T10:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/178291\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T10:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T10:00:08","slug":"how-are-they-in-first-place-you-know-the-answer-guards-ball-terry-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/178291\/","title":{"rendered":"How are they in first place? You know the answer: Guards Ball \u2013 Terry Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 The first-place Cleveland Guardians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s a sentence I never expected to write in the last five months.<\/p>\n

I kept thinking that while watching the Guardians beat Detroit 5-2 Tuesday night<\/a> before 29,571 fans at Progressive Field.<\/p>\n

The first-place Guardians \u2026<\/p>\n

Yes, Cleveland and Detroit have the same record of 85-72. Both teams have five games left \u2013 the Tigers and Guardians playing two more games here in the next two days.<\/p>\n

But the Guardians tied for first place? Can you believe it?<\/p>\n

On the evening of July 6, Detroit had just finished a three-game sweep of the Guardians. The Tigers had a 57-34 record. The Guardians were 40-48, 15\u00bd games out of first place.<\/p>\n

Here we are \u2026 tied.<\/p>\n

Here we are \u2026 watching Detroit having lost 10 of 11 games, including the last seven.<\/p>\n

Here we are \u2026 watching the Guardians having won 11 of their last 12 games. <\/p>\n

Here we are \u2026 watching Guards Ball.<\/p>\n

\"TigersGuardians left fielder Steven Kwan (left) and second baseman Daniel Schneemann jumped for joy after they beat the Tigers on Tuesday night to tie Detroit for first place in the AL Central.APHere comes Guards Ball <\/p>\n

Guards Ball means playing the game the right way, the hard way.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s game was all about \u2026 Guards Ball.<\/p>\n

The Guardians scored three runs in the sixth inning without hitting the ball out of the infield.<\/p>\n

Guards Ball.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Steven Kwan coming to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning. Detroit had a 2-0 lead. Detroit had Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal on the mound. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Kwan dropped down a bunt single.<\/p>\n

Guards Ball.<\/p>\n

Next up, Angel Martinez. He bunted down the first-base line.<\/p>\n

Skubal rumbled after the slow roller and suddenly decided he\u2019d try out for long-snapper. He picked up the ball, still looking at home plate \u2026 and flipped the ball between his legs \u2026 right over the first baseman\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch had to be wondering \u2026 did that really happen? Did my ace suddenly play the part of the joker with that crazy between-the-legs throw?<\/p>\n

Yes, he did.<\/p>\n

Guards Ball will do that to you. So will the pressure of becoming the team that blew the biggest lead (15\u00bd games) in the history of the Majors. <\/p>\n

Skubal\u2019s error put Kwan on third base, Martinez on second \u2026 and Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez coming to bat.<\/p>\n

I figured Detroit would walk Ram\u00edrez to load the bases. After all, the Guardians\u2019 Secret Superstar is a career .367 hitter vs. Skubal.<\/p>\n

I figured wrong.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez hit a dribbler down the third-base line for a single. Kwan scored. Martinez moved to third base. Detroit 2, Cleveland 1. <\/p>\n

\"ClevelandDetroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal was rattled by Guards Ball in the sixth inning. John Kuntz, cleveland.comMore Guards Ball <\/p>\n

David Fry was batting. He tried to bunt, and fouled the pitch into his face. He went down. The game was stopped for several minutes.<\/p>\n

Skubal was worried, holding his head \u2026 looking up at the heavens.<\/p>\n

He was worried about Fry. He was upset at himself for his error. He probably felt like the baseball gods hated him and Tigers with all those bunts and slow rollers leading to guys on base.<\/p>\n

Fry left the game. George Valera came to bat for Fry.<\/p>\n

Skubal uncorked a slider that bounced a few feet in front of the plate \u2013 a wild pitch.<\/p>\n

Martinez scored, making it 2-2. <\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez went to second base.<\/p>\n

Guards Ball. <\/p>\n

Skubal\u2019s face turned scarlet. You could sense him thinking, \u201cHow can this be happening?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez was dancing off second base. A distracted Skubal looked at home plate. He looked at Ram\u00edrez. <\/p>\n

He balked. <\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez went to third, then scored on a groundout.<\/p>\n

Cleveland 3, Detroit 2.<\/p>\n

Guards Ball.<\/p>\n

\"ClevelandGavin Williams struck out 12 in his six innings. John Kuntz, cleveland.comGuards Ball is real <\/p>\n

The Guardians sent ace Gavin Williams to the mound, and he pitched like an ace.<\/p>\n

Six innings, a dozen strikeouts, two runs allowed.<\/p>\n

The Guardians bullpen of Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith shut down the Tigers in the final three innings.<\/p>\n

Cleveland pitchers fanned 19 Detroit hitters.<\/p>\n

In the seventh inning, Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt sent Daniel Schneemann up with runners on second and third. The lefty pinch-hitter lined a base hit, driving in two runs.<\/p>\n

If you happen to see Vogt buying lottery tickets somewhere, get in line and play his numbers. The manager is as hot as his team.<\/p>\n

Before the game, Vogt made a revealing comment: <\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole month has kind of felt like the playoffs. The belief and confidence these guys are showing up with \u2014 that\u2019s what you need in these types of games. There\u2019s no pressure. Go have fun and play baseball. That\u2019s how we\u2019ve gotten here, and it doesn\u2019t change now.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what they did \u2026<\/p>\n

Guards Ball. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 The first-place Cleveland Guardians. Now there\u2019s a sentence I never expected to write in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[76875,105934,99],"class_list":["post-178291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cleveland-guardians-2025","tag-detroit-tigers-2025","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}