Tigers Magic Number: AL Central lead isn't as comfortable with Guardians in town

When they opened their three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday, the Detroit Tigers were hoping to put some distance between themselves and their American League Central rivals in the race for the division title. Instead, they allowed Cleveland to cut another game off of their lead.

The Guardians (79-71) defeated the Tigers (85-66), 7-5, in 10 innings on Tuesday in the first game of a series that would have allowed Detroit to lock up the division title with a sweep. With the Tigers showing signs of slumping at the worst possible time, their winning the AL Central crown suddenly doesn't feel as inevitable as it did just a few weeks ago.

Conversely, the Guardians are heating up at just the right time, winning 10 of their last 11 games to trim four games off of Detroit's division lead since Thursday. Cleveland still sits 5.5 games back of the Tigers, but every Guardians win down the stretch makes Detroit sweat a little more.

Tigers Magic Number: AL Central lead isn't as comfortable with Guardians in town

Entering the series against the Guardians, the Tigers' magic number to clinch the AL Central division was seven – that is, any combination of seven Detroit wins and Cleveland losses. Since the Guardians took game one of the series, that number remains at seven for now.

But Detroit can still cut into the magic number by winning one or both of the remaining games in the series. If the Tigers win one game over Cleveland, their magic number to clinch the division drops to five. If they win both remaining games, the number drops to three.

The two teams play one another again next week in Cleveland, and the Tigers don't want to be in a situation in which they are still sweating their division lead by then. Therefore, winning at least one of their games in this series is going to be crucial for Detroit.

The Guardians are gaining ground in the AL Wild Card race, and they aren't going to go away quietly. If the Tigers want to lock down their first division title in more than a decade, their performance in this series is going to be crucial.

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