The calendar still says September, but the Cleveland Guardians' matchup with the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday surely felt like a classic October, playoff showdown.

The first nine innings were a tightly-contested, well-pitched, and low-scoring affair. The intensity could be felt with every pitch and at-bat.

Cleveland held a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, but Kerry Carpenter sent the game to extra innings with a game-changing home run off the Guardians’ closer. 

Sounds familiar, right?

Unlike last October, the Guardians were able to respond after Carpenter’s home run and flipped the game on its head in extra innings, leaving Detroit and its fan base stunned. 

The Tigers had all the momentum heading into extra innings after the game-tying homer, but the Guardians quickly re-captured it and ran away with the game in a matter of minutes and a few pitches. 

With Will Vest, Detroit’s closer, on the mound in the top of the 10th inning, the Guardians scored four runs thanks to RBI from Steven Kwan, Angel Martinez, Jose Ramirez, and Kyle Manzardo.

While Cleveland celebrated in their dugout, pure shock settled in across the diamond in Detroit.

With how the Guardians battled all game and responded in extra innings, Stephen Vogt believes this victory “just shows the resilience of this group all year. You know, that, that game was tight. That game was intense the whole way.”

Looking at the bigger picture, this win over the Tigers keeps the Guardians firmly in the playoff race, only 3.0 games out of a wild card spot, and, now, 5.5 games behind Detroit in the American League Central with five games left to play against their division rival.

A lot still has to go right for Cleveland, and the most important thing is that the Guardians need to keep winning. 

However, if Tuesday’s victory shows us anything, it’s that this group is resilient and they won’t stop fighting until they're mathematically out of playoff contention or punch their ticket to the postseason.