September is coming to an end, and that means it’s the beginning of the spooky season.

Halloween decorations have begun to pop up in neighborhoods, candy has flooded stores nationwide for a little bit now and people will start putting thought into what they want to dress up as for the holiday.

The Cleveland Guardians might as well dress as Freddy Krueger for October.

Much like the antagonist from the Nightmare on Elm Street slasher franchise, the Guardians will haunt the dreams of the Detroit Tigers and their fans for a while, especially if Cleveland can pull off an American League Wildcard win over their AL Central rivals this week.

Cleveland was the talk of the baseball world over the last month. They sat 15 1/2 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central standings on July 8, but they managed to track down Detroit and claim their 13th Central crown since the division started in 1995.

The run to the division title was the largest comeback for a playoff spot in Major League Baseball history, topping the 1914 “Miracle” Boston Braves, who were 15 games behind the New York Giants on July 4. That Braves squad battled back to win the National League pennant and eventually swept Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics club in the World Series. It was the only World Series Boston won as the Braves before moving to Milwaukee in 1953.

It was also the largest comeback in the Divisional Era, breaking the mark held by the 1978 New York Yankees. The Bronx Bombers were 14 games behind the Boston Red Sox before overtaking the division, knocking off the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS and beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 to take the World Series.

As if the historic comeback wasn’t enough, for Guardians manager Stephen Vogt to win his second consecutive AL Manager of the Year award, Cleveland’s second-year leader also had to guide the team through one of the most bizarre seasons in MLB history.

The consensus entering the season was that Cleveland and Detroit were the frontrunners for the AL Central. The Guardians had a history of being one of the most consistent franchises in baseball over the last 30 years, and the Tigers had a magical run of their own in the final month of 2024 to make it as a wildcard last postseason.

Then the wheels started to come off.

Cleveland sat around the .500 mark for a good chunk of the first half of the season, and a 10-game losing streak looked to doom the Guardians’ campaign. Some days it was the defense, others it was the bullpen, maybe that day’s starting pitcher struggled. The only constant was the lack of offense from the lineup.

If things already didn’t look bleak, pretty much all of the team’s notable acquisitions over the previous six months weren’t contributing. Center fielder Lane Thomas battled the injury bug pretty much all year after being healthy for last season’s postseason run following a trade at the 2024 deadline from the Washington Nationals. Relief pitcher Paul Sewald also found himself on the injury list after only making 18 appearances for the Guardians before being dealt to Detroit in July.

As the Guardians hoped to limp into the All-Star break, news broke July 3 that starting pitcher Luis Ortiz was being investigated for potential gambling on pitches he threw in previous games. The gambling storyline continued as All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase also found himself on leave for an investigation on July 30.

The team’s defense significantly improved over the course of the summer, but the team’s rotation and bullpen were now thrust into chaos, and the lineup was still struggling to find any offense.

A 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays dipped the Guardians’ record to 69-70 on Sept. 4. But then the stars aligned.

Cleveland went 19-4 in its final 23 games, including taking five of the six final games against Detroit to make a run at the division realistic. They earned a postseason spot with a win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday, and a Tigers loss to the Red Sox on Sunday clinched the Central for Cleveland before former Mahoning Valley Scrapper Brayan Rocchio hit a three-run walk-off home run to end the regular season with a win.

The Guardians have home field for the Wildcard series against the Tigers, which starts today at 1 p.m. on ESPN. They should be the favorite to advance and take on the Toronto Blue Jays in the Divisional Series.

However, the result shouldn’t matter.

The team pulled off the nearly impossible and overcame chaos along the way. The Guardians made it a season to remember, regardless of how the postseason ends.

But, hey, why not try and shoot for another World Series run? Let’s see if they can keep the dream season alive, and while they’re at it, add another nightmare series to end the Tigers’ season.