The Cleveland Guardians woke up in first place this morning because their bats finally woke up in the nick of time.

After falling behind early and facing a humiliating four-game sweep, the Guardians emerged with 7-5 victory at Progressive Field on Wednesday.

NOT A GREAT START

When Tanner Bibee gave up a home run to leadoff hitter Michael Massey, Guardians fans thought, “Here we go again.”

That sinking feeling intensified when Vinnie Pasquantino also went deep two batters later.

Josh Naylor got a run back in the bottom of the third on a fielder’s choice to score Andres Gimenez.

However, Bibee gave up Gopher Ball No. 3 to Bobby Witt Jr. in the third inning. Fortunately for Cleveland, all three homers were solo shots.

Steven Kwan’s infield hit scored Jhonkensy Noel in the fifth inning to cut the Royals’ lead to 3-2.

Kansas City padded the lead again in the sixth, chasing Bibee with RBI singles by Adam Frazier and Mikael Garcia.

A NEW HOPE

After the seventh-inning stretch, the Guardians began what we in the pro-wrestling world call “the big babyface comeback.”

Bo Naylor started the fun with a solo homer, his 11th of the season, off Royals starter Michael Wacha.

Josh Naylor and Will Brennan added RBI singles to tie the game, and Noel did the same to give Cleveland a 6-5 lead.

These were not hard hits, as the Guardians suddenly employed the Wee Willie Keeler “hit it where they ain’t” strategy.

In the eighth inning, Gimenez provided an insurance run with a sacrifice fly to score pinch-runner Lane Thomas.

Eli Morgan (2-0) earned the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

CLEVELAND’S CLOSER

Emmanuel Clase put away the Royals in the ninth for his 39th save of the season. He tied Cody Allen on top of Cleveland’s all-time saves list with 149.

The Guardians will take a much-needed day off before hosting a three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday.

Ben Lively (11-8) will start for Cleveland, while the Bucs will go with Bailey Falter (6-7).