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

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 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 had been 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. His ground ball that snuck through the infield was enough to plate two runs and shift momentum back in his favor. In his next at-bat, he laced a single into left.

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.