The Cleveland Guardians are back on top of the American League Central — barely. A 6-3 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night at Progressive Field handed Cleveland (78-75) a half-game lead over Chicago (77-75), ending the White Sox's stretch of 74 straight days in first place and setting up a frantic final nine games of the regular season.

Chicago looked like it might hold serve when Tommy Pham crushed a three-run homer in the fifth inning to put the White Sox up 3-2. But rookie outfielder Petey Halpin answered in the bottom of the sixth with a three-run shot of his own, part of a four-run inning that swung the game and, with it, the division. Starter Parker Messick struck out eight over six innings for his 12th win of the season, and the bullpen closed it out from there, according to MLB.com's game recap.

A race that keeps flipping

Cleveland has won the division outright in each of the last two seasons, and manager Stephen Vogt was careful not to get ahead of himself after Wednesday's win. "It feels good," Vogt said. "It doesn't mean anything yet. We've got a job to do for nine more games." The Guardians own baseball's third-best September record since 2016 (173-116) and famously erased an 11-game deficit as recently as last September, a run detailed in the wire report on the series that has fans in Cleveland believing history could repeat.

"Giving up the division lead, everybody will feel how they feel about it. But I'm proud of the guys and I think we're in a good spot moving forward." — White Sox manager Will Venable

For Chicago, the loss stings but doesn't derail the bigger picture. The White Sox still hold the American League's final Wild Card spot, 1½ games clear of the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays, and they own the season-series tiebreaker over Cleveland after going 7-6 against the Guardians this year. A White Sox postseason berth would be historic in its own right — Chicago is trying to become the first team to reach the playoffs immediately after back-to-back 100-loss seasons. Shortstop Colson Montgomery exited Wednesday's game with a bruised wrist; X-rays came back negative and he's considered day-to-day, per MLB.com.

Outfielder Tommy Pham summed up the stakes facing his club down the stretch: "Every game is like a must-win. You have to make the plays every day."

Cleveland gets Thursday off before opening a series against the Athletics, then hits the road for six games against Boston and Kansas City. Chicago has no such breather — the White Sox open a four-game set at Detroit on Thursday, followed by trips to Kansas City and Colorado, with every game now carrying direct weight in both the division and Wild Card pictures.