Guardians' style of baseball officially has its back against the wall vs. Tigers
originally appeared on The Sporting News

The bottom of the ninth inning couldn't have started in a more Cleveland Guardians sort of way.

Jose Ramirez hit a grounder up the middle, sprinted his heart out, arrived at about the same time as the throw, saw it bound away, and raced all the way to third on what was deemed a single and an error.

Ramirez was the potential tying run in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card matchup with the Detroit Tigers, a 2-1 deficit on the scoreboard for Cleveland.

But with Ramirez on third and no out, they'd surely tie it, right?

It didn't happen.

Ramirez was eventually too aggressive on a grounder back to Tigers closer Will Vest, and he was caught in a rundown and tagged out.

The Guardians lost, 2-1, and now their season is on the brink.

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The Wild Card Round features best-of-three series. The Tigers are up 1-0 and need just one more win to advance and knock out Cleveland.

The Guardians can't really be blamed too heavily on Tuesday. Tigers ace Tarik Skubal was utterly dominant.

But it's still a test of the way the Guardians do things. They tried, over and over, to bunt for hits against Skubal. Their only run came thanks to two infield hits and a walk and a baserunner scoring from second base on a ball just behind the pitcher's mound.

Analytics fans will say that to win in the postseason, teams need to hit for power. The numbers don't love small ball.

The Guardians, though, used "Guards Ball" to make it all the way back from a 15.5-game deficit in the AL Central. This is what they do.

But it'll have to work in two games in a row, now, or the season will be over.

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