Guardians celebrate in clubhouse after clinching MLB playoff berth
The Cleveland Guardians celebrated punching their tickets to the MLB playoffs. Johnathan Rodriguez received the belt from team leader Austin Hedges.
Only Cleveland could win like this. Clinch a 2025 MLB playoff berth like this.
The Guardians’ absurd run to the American League Central title featured numerous hilarious, mind-boggling wins.
The Guardians trailed the Detroit Tigers by 9½ games on Sept. 10 with 17 games remaning. They were 74-71 at the time with a 0.1% chance to win the division, according to FanGraphs. The Tigers were 84-62 with 16 games left.
Cleveland finished the regular season with a 14-3 sprint, including a 5-1 record against the Tigers, who faltered to a 3-13 finish to complete a historic MLB collapse. The rivals now have a playoff rematch in the wild-card series beginning Tuesday in Cleveland (1:08 p.m., ESPN).
The Guardians finished with a negative-6 run differential: 643 runs scored, 649 runs against. No other team had less than a plus-35 run differential. (The Tigers were plus-67, despite all the losses.)
Even when times got tight – say, with a tie score after the eighth inning – the Guardians found improbably, occasionally unbelievable ways to win. They went 11-4 in games tied through eight innings, the third best record in baseball. (The Tigers? Just 8-9.)
They call it #GuardsBall over there.
Scoring three runs Tuesday off baseball’s best pitcher, Tarik Skubal, in the sixth inning without a ball leaving the infield, including a wild pitch and a balk. The stunning half-inning erased a 2-0 deficit en route to a 5-2 Guardians victory.
Clinching a playoff berth on a walk-off hit-by-pitch Saturday.
Securing the division outright Sunday in Game 162 on a 10th-inning, walk-off home run to complete a 9-8 comeback.
But the season begins anew in the playoffs.
Everyone is 0-0, as Tigers manager A.J. Hinch reminded the world Saturday night after his Tigers finally clinched their posteason spot with a rare win.
“Check the records come Tuesday — everyone is 0-0,” he said.
The Tigers pulled off the unthinkable last season, rallying from a 0.1% playoff chance Aug. 10 to go on a 31-11 run to clinch a 2024 AL wild-card spot.
They beat the favored Houston Astros on the road in two games in the wild-card series, then held a 2-1 ALDS lead on the Guardians. But Cleveland rallied for a 5-4 win in Game 4 in Detroit, then used a Lane Thomas grand slam to eliminate the Tigers in the decisive Game 5, 7-3. (Cleveland then lost in five games to the New York Yankees in the ALCS.)
When will the Guardians’ luck run out in 2025? The Tigers hope to have something to say about it.
The best-of-three AL wild-card series begins with Game 1 on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at Progressive Field in Cleveland, with Skubal on the mound for Detroit. Game 2 is Wednesday in Cleveland and Game 3, if necessary, is Thursday in Cleveland.
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