CLEVELAND — So, so much has gone right for the Guardians this season that they haven't really had to struggle through an extended slump — until now.

The Guardians (59-40), still in first place but no longer firing on all cylinders, are having to dig themselves out of a hole for the first time all year, at least to this extent.

For a team that beat any reasonable expectations by a couple miles in the first half of the season, and one that hit that ground running under first-year manager Stephen Vogt and maintained a full sprint for several months, it's the first time they've really had their backs against the wall searching for answers.

It's the first time these Guardians have really stumbled after launching out of the gates and taking the entire league by surprise. And now, they know it's time to find out what they're made of as a ballclub.

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Entering Tuesday, the Guardians had lost three consecutive games and seven of their last nine. And an offense that had been a top-10 lineup in the league had hit a rut, scoring two or fewer runs in six of their previous eight games.

Teams often will say you learn the most about a clubhouse when times are tough. The Guardians showed they can compete, as they held the best record in the American League entering the All-Star break. Now they'll find out if they have the discipline to weather such a storm.

Veteran catcher Austin Hedges has been credited by teammates all year as having a massively positive impact on the clubhouse culture that helped the Guardians, again one of the youngest teams in baseball, exceed expectations and become a contender (and likely a "buyer" at the fast-approaching trade deadline).

After Monday night's 8-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers, Hedges spoke for nearly five minutes about where the team stands and what they need to do to move forward.

"It's at the point of the season where motivation is no longer a thing," Hedges said. "You come into the season, it's easy to be motivated, but you can't rely on motivation. You've got to rely on discipline and doing the boring stuff."

Austin Hedges says first-place Guardians learning how to take other teams' best shot in American League Central race

In a way, it's a testament to how the Guardians have put themselves in a position to be targeted by other teams. They opened the season as fringe contenders with a young roster and a very young (by comparison to other teams), new manager. They quickly transformed from the hunter to the hunted.

As Hedges detailed, now it's up to them to figure out how to respond to that. In a way, they have to learn how to be a top dog.

"We did a really good job of riding out some momentum, doing some discipline things, and right now we have a young group that's responding to being such a good team," Hedges said. "And when you're such a good team, you got teams like the Tigers that are saving pitchers to face us. You have teams really game planning for us coming in with everything they've got, and we're right now figuring out how we're going to respond to that."

"And it's not happening as quickly as we want, but I feel like we're still playing a version of our baseball. … It's really simple. It doesn't make it easy, but it's not complicated. We just got to get back to doing that."

Vogt recently stated that he doesn't often see the need or value in large team meetings. Hedges relayed Monday night that nothing like that has taken place. But they've been talking about this recent stretch, and they just about always discuss losses. Lately, for the first time all summer, they've had a larger run of them.

After Monday's game, Hedges had several players, including Bo Naylor, David Fry, Steven Kwan and Josh Naylor, around his locker for a conversation. Meetings like those, they hope, will help right the ship.

"It's not like some big meeting needs to happen — we've already been talking about it," Hedges said. "We don't wait until now to have these conversations. When we lose a game, we talk about it. We identify what's going on."

"Guys are aware of this, but now it's about actually doing it in the game, and it's going to turn. … It's not like we have to reinvent something new, we just have to go out and execute."

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Threads at @ByRyanLewis.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians atop AL Central standings but in slump