Can you believe it? David Fry? Homer? Squeeze colorful? Guardians are still alive! –Terry Pluto

Thanks to David Fry (and others, of course), the Guardians and Detroit will meet in Game 5 at Progressive Field on Saturday. The best-of-five series is tied 2-2.

But who saw that coming?

This could be the Guardians in the playoffs. These could be the Guardians with the second-best record in the American League.

This could be the highlight of the seventh inning with Detroit leading 3-2. This could be Fry batting for Kyle Manzardo and Detroit manager AJ Hinch waving to the bullpen.

That's what Hinch does. Reliever after reliever after reliever.

“Pitching chaos,” he calls it. Hinch told Beau Brieske to throw to Fry.

The statistics spoke against him

In the seventh inning, Fry had faced Brieske three times in his career.

Guess what happened… you got it… three strikeouts.

Or how about this? Fry had 35 at-bats as a pinch-hitter with a .214 batting average.

Brieske, one of Detroit's best relievers, entered the game with 5 1/3 scoreless playoff innings. This is exactly the matchup Hinch (and the Detroit stat geeks) wanted.

Brieske threw a 98 mph fastball to David Fry…

WHAP!

It's like David Fry said: “Pitching chaos? What’s with the chaos!”

He hit a line drive 382 feet over the left field fence for a two-run home run.

Cleveland simply had a 4-3 lead.

Who saw this coming?

The same David Fry came to bat to start the ninth inning. Cleveland was still up 4-3. But the Guardians had runners on first and third base. One out.

Remember, Fry hit a home run in his last at-bat.

Only this time it's…colorful? Yes, BUNTED!

It was a safety squeeze play with Brayan Rocchio rushing in from third base. Fry put the cake down expertly. Rocchio scored.

So we're talking a two-run home run and a squeeze bunt in three innings for the Guardians.

Get this now…

David Fry has never suffered a sacrifice error of any kind in his two-year major league career, which included 505 plate appearances through Thursday.

They handled the pressure

This sacrifice was crucial. It gave Cleveland and closer teammate Emmanuel Clase some baseball breathing room with a 5-3 lead. He gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth, but it wasn't a problem.

Entering the game, the Guardians had gone 20 straight innings scoreless. It was obvious that they were pressing, particularly at some key stages in the last two games.

Stephen Vogt tried to negate some of the discussion about playoff pressure.

“I think the pressure comes from yourself,” said the Guardians manager. “It’s the pressure you put on yourself. There is only noise outside. It depends on what you tell yourself, the story you tell yourself before every game.”

In theory, this is all true.

However, keep in mind that Cleveland hasn't won a postseason elimination game since 1997. They had lost the previous 11 elimination games, the longest streak in postseason history.

What was Vogt's message to his team before Thursday's game? This is how he explained it to the media

“For us, that means going out, having fun, enjoying playoff baseball, playing carefree, playing loose, being yourself,” he said. “That's been the rhetoric all year…”

And guess what?

That's exactly what happened. Steven Kwan had three more hits. He's batting .500 in these playoffs. Lane Thomas drove in Cleveland's first run. Jose Ramirez hit a home run.

And then there was David Fry. The Homer. The colorful one. And yes, the fun that Vogt talked about before the game.