Game result and context
Guardians beat Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings, keep hold of a wild-card position
Cleveland trailed 3-0 through five innings before chipping back. Travis Bazzana's two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth tied the game, and the Guardians scored once in the 10th to win 4-3. Cleveland moved to 72-70 and remains in wild-card position; Detroit fell to 64-77.
Final result
The Cleveland Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings on September 4, 2026, at Progressive Field. The game drew 21,474 fans.
Cleveland improved to 72-70. Detroit dropped to 64-77.
How the game changed
The turn came in the bottom of the eighth. Travis Bazzana lined a two-run homer that erased the last of a three-run deficit and sent the game toward extra innings.
Detroit had built that lead early. The Tigers scored twice in the third and added a run in the fifth to go up 3-0. Cleveland got one back in the sixth, then tied it on Bazzana's homer in the eighth.
Neither team scored in the ninth. The Guardians pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.
Key performances
Bazzana went 2 for 3 with a run scored and three RBI, and his eighth-inning blast was the only home run of the game.
Foster Griffin gave Cleveland 6.0 innings, allowing three earned runs with three strikeouts. Daniel Espino followed with 2.0 scoreless innings and three strikeouts, keeping the Tigers quiet while the offense caught up.
For Detroit, Andrew Sears worked 5.2 innings, allowing one earned run and striking out four. Kevin McGonigle went 2 for 5 with an RBI, and Eduardo Valencia went 1 for 5 with an RBI.
Season and playoff context
In standings dated September 4, Cleveland sat second in its division, 2.5 games back, and ranked third in the wild-card race while holding a wild-card position. The Guardians' elimination number in the division was 18.
Detroit ranked fourth in the division, 10.0 games back, and ninth in the wild-card standings, 7.5 games out. The Tigers' division elimination number was 11, and their wild-card elimination number was 12. This was a regular-season game.
Series context
The game was the second of a four-game regular-season series between the teams at Progressive Field.