CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Guardians spent six months proving they wouldn’t quit. But on Thursday afternoon, their fight came to a sudden halt against division rival Detroit.
Cleveland’s season ended with a 6–3 loss to the Tigers in Game 3 of the American League wild card series at Progressive Field, capping a year defined as much by improbable resilience as it was by heartbreak.
The Guardians stormed back from a 15½-game deficit to overtake the Tigers on the final day of the regular season and claim their second straight AL Central Division title. But just four days later, it was Detroit celebrating on the infield, spraying champagne in the visitors’ clubhouse.
“It stings. It stings for it to end that way,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them, of what we accomplished. It’s not enough. We want more. And I think that’s really the message — let this sting. We’re close. We are really close. We’re not quite there yet.”
The Guardians had no shortage of obstacles. Injuries gutted the pitching staff, robbing them of Ben Lively and Andrew Walters. They lost Luis Ortiz and All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase when MLB’s gambling investigation forced them into an indefinite leave. And in late July, the front office dealt away former ace Shane Bieber amid rumors that Steven Kwan might be next.
Instead, the Guardians got younger — and somehow better. C.J. Kayfus, Parker Messick, and George Valera all emerged as difference-makers. In the final series against Detroit, prized prospect Chase DeLauter stunned the baseball world by debuting on the postseason stage. Through it all, Vogt’s club refused to unravel.
Falling behind after Detroit scored four times in the seventh inning Thursday was just too much to overcome.
“They have every excuse, every reason thrown at them to quit at any point during this summer, and they refused to do that,” Vogt said. “Even today. They could have easily just given up and stopped fighting and everyone would have understood. But they didn’t. They came right back, made it interesting there at the end.”
For catcher Austin Hedges, a veteran of four postseason runs with Cleveland, the ending hurt no less.
“We play this game to win championships, and when you don’t, it hurts really, really bad,” Hedges said. “There’s a reason winning a World Series is the greatest feeling on earth. It’s because when you don’t do it, it’s the worst feeling.”
Yet Hedges, like Vogt, sees reason for hope in the youth of the roster — and in the hard lessons learned this October.
“Honestly, lucky them,” Hedges said of the rookies. “They got to experience playoffs early in their career. You can’t recreate that adrenaline in the regular season. Now they know what it’s like. When we get back to the playoffs next year, this group’s going to be even more prepared.”
The Guardians will now head into the offseason with a degree of uncertainty. Change is inevitable, as Vogt admitted, and this exact roster will never play another game together. But as he looked around the clubhouse, Vogt insisted his players had carved out something that can last.
“That’s a special group of human beings in there,” Vogt said. “We’ve been with each other every day for eight months — laughing, crying, yelling, working. Now it stops. And I had so much fun with this group. Just their resilience, everything they went through. They didn’t let it faze them. I love them.”
Cleveland’s miraculous comeback season ended one win shy of advancing to the Division Series. Still, with a young group of battle-tested players hardened by October baseball, the Guardians believe their story is far from over.
“It’s exhausting,” Hedges said. “But the beauty of experiencing that is you do have that roadmap. So now we have a couple more road signs on the map that tell us where to go next year. And I’m looking forward to seeing what this group can do with that.”
Generative AI was used to organize information for this story.
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