CLEVELAND -- This was the step in the right direction the Guardians have needed to take.

The bats had fallen silent. It’s the cruel up-and-down nature of the sport that every team experiences. The hope is that the ups happen in the most critical moments of the year and that the downs happen when there’s wiggle room to make a mistake. For the most part, that luck has fallen in Cleveland’s favor this year, but as a potential postseason berth inches closer, short-term skids can feel like an eternity.

That’s why one could feel a weight lift off the shoulders of every fan at Progressive Field on Saturday night, when Lane Thomas and José Ramírez hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning to put the Rays away, 6-1. Because the Royals won earlier in the day, the Guardians’ lead in the American League Central remains at three games.

“It was just a matter of time before the bats woke up,” said Guardians starter Joey Cantillo, who tossed five scoreless innings. “They just kept fighting, and those guys put some good swings on the ball. Then, obviously the six runs, you see the offense come alive. I just wanted to make sure my job was to keep us in the game.”

It wasn’t just about eking out a victory and getting back in the win column. Cleveland fans were ready to see their best hitters have life in their bats to get hot just in time for October to roll around. That included Josh Naylor, Ramírez and Thomas.

Naylor was 1-for-his-last-13 when he stepped in the batter’s box with the infield in and the bases loaded in the sixth inning. He had gone 22 plate appearances without knocking in a run and had only plated three in September thus far. But instead of trying to do too much, Naylor simply put the ball in play and watched it sneak through the infield into center field to knock in two runs and shift momentum back in his favor. In his next at-bat, he laced a single into left.

Naylor has been critical to the Guardians’ success this season. The team is now 39-19 when he has at least one RBI. But when he’s going at the same time as Ramírez, that’s when this offense becomes dangerous.

September certainly hasn’t been Ramírez’s best month. It hasn’t been his worst month, either. But the Guardians need more from him in October than just being in the middle of the pack. They need their RBI machine at his peak. So, when Ramírez turned on a slider and sent it into the right-field seats just three pitches after Thomas hit his home run to left, it could only be a positive.

“Obviously [Ramírez is] one of the better players in the league,” Thomas said. “Getting to watch him every day and just see the versatility … it’s pretty incredible. [He] hits for power, plays good defense. Seeing it every day in person is a lot different than across the field, for sure.”

Now, here’s where the Guardians can take this lineup to the next level. They knew they would need Naylor and Ramírez in October. What they didn’t know was what Thomas would bring to the table when they acquired him from the Nationals on July 29. He was known to be an average hitter, but he wasn’t a power bat. In fact, he carried a streak of 213 at-bats without a long ball before his first one with Cleveland on Sept. 2. Since then, he’s had four homers in his past 44 at-bats.

“I’m almost glad I struggled a little bit and was able to expose something and fix what was wrong before the season ended,” Thomas said. “Just going to try to keep building off of that stuff.”

This is what the Guardians traded for at the Deadline. They wanted a wild card who could bring some extra energy to the lineup. In September, Thomas has given everyone a glimpse of what that could look like in October. Can it stay? That’s hard to predict. But Cleveland knows it will take more than just Ramírez and Naylor once the postseason rolls around. The club is hoping Saturday was a good start.

“If you look at our offense over the course of the whole year, [Ramírez] and Nayls have carried the majority of the load,” Vogt said. “But when we’re at our best, not only are those guys going, but everyone else is contributing.”