CLEVELAND -- For the first time since the morning of April 14, the Guardians are not in sole possession of first place in the American League Central.

Tuesday night couldn’t have gone any worse for Cleveland for a multitude of reasons, but let’s start with the obvious. After getting swept in Monday’s doubleheader, the Guardians fell, 6-1, to the Royals at Progressive Field on Tuesday. This means the Guardians and the Royals are now tied atop the AL Central leaderboard after Cleveland led Kansas City by 10 games as recently as the morning of June 26.

“For me it’s about the end of the season. It doesn’t matter how you get there,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “If you want to look back at the standings at the big lead [we had], that’s early in the season. That’s why you play 162 games. There’s nothing that says in this final stretch that we don’t go on a run. There’s nothing that says we don’t do it again.”

The loss also meant that the Royals officially secured the advantage in any potential tiebreaker scenarios at the end of the regular season. Tiebreakers are determined by head-to-head records between the two teams. The Royals have gone 7-2 against the Guardians this year with just four meetings remaining, clinching the series victory. If Cleveland and Kansas City end the year tied for first place in the AL Central, the division title would go to the Royals.

This is a huge blow to the Guardians, who now have 29 games left to win at least one more game than the Royals (and let’s not forget that the Twins are currently just 2 1/2 games back). But Cleveland is flushed with AL Central matchups over the next few weeks. It has four more meetings with the Royals, three more with the White Sox and four more with the Twins. When the Guardians have gone just 21-20 against divisional opponents this year, that’s a daunting task.

“Our division’s tough,” Vogt said. “This is going to be a fight. When you have evenly matched teams, it’s going to happen.”

But there’s a third layer to all of this that made Tuesday night even more sour for Cleveland. The Guardians desperately needed starter Gavin Williams to eat up innings after deploying everyone in their bullpen for Monday’s doubleheader. Williams made one mistake, giving up a two-run homer to Paul DeJong in the second inning, but got through five innings on 83 pitches -- pitching well enough to earn at least one more frame. However, the weather had other plans.

A two hour, 14-minute rain delay in the middle of the fifth inning caused Williams’ night to end early and the Guardians had to go back to Nick Sandlin, Scott Barlow and Pedro Avila -- all of whom pitched the day prior. And when Barlow faced command struggles, the Royals turned a one-run lead into a four-run lead in the seventh inning.

It hasn’t helped that the offense has struggled to find a rhythm like it had been in during the first half of the season. Over the last few weeks, Cleveland’s success against the fastball has plummeted. Since Aug. 3, the offense collectively has hit .218 with a .432 slugging percentage against heaters, while before Aug. 3, the team owned a .253 average against the offering.

“I believe in this offense,” Vogt said. “I believe what we’ve done all year is who we are and a couple week stretch doesn’t define who we’ve become or anything like that.”

Now, the Guardians have to balance getting back to their old ways while making sure they aren’t pressing at the plate.

“I think I see a bunch of guys who want to be the guy that steps up and helps their team win,” Vogt said. “And for me, [we] got to relax and go be ourselves.”

The Guardians may have lost three games in the standings in just 48 hours, but they know the opportunity that lies in front of them. They can salvage a win in the series finale on Wednesday. They have three more games against the Royals next week. But they just have to find a way to get back in the win column.

“I know we can play better than we have these last two weeks and I know we’re going to come out of this,” Vogt said. “I’ve said it from day one: I believe this team can win a World Series and I still stand by that.”