The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians open up American League Divisional Series play on Saturday afternoon in an unexpected battle between two AL Central teams. Last year, the division was the worst in baseball, but somewhat miraculously, four of the five teams posted .500 records or better this summer.
Of course, there was the Chicago White Sox’s historically bad campaign as well.
The Guards won the division title and the regular-season series with Detroit but in a narrow fashion, seven games to six. Cleveland won the first series of the season at home back in May, two games to one, but the Tigers struck back in July taking three of four inside Comerica Park ahead of the All-Star Game.