{"id":815294,"date":"2026-09-27T05:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/815294\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T05:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:30:20","slug":"the-guardians-were-on-fumes-to-close-out-the-al-central-and-now-they-get-a-bye-to-recover-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/815294\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardians were ‘on fumes’ to close out the AL Central, and now they get a bye to recover"},"content":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) \u2014 Six games back of the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox in mid-August, the Cleveland Guardians threw everything they had at chasing down their division foes.<\/p>\n

Lucky them, the AL Central crown<\/a> comes with a little break before their postseason begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get some rest, this team was on fumes,\u201d Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said after his club wrapped up its third straight division title by beating the Kansas City Royals 11-5 on Saturday night while Chicago lost 9-6<\/a> to the Colorado Rockies. Cleveland has won seven AL Central championships in the past 11 seasons.<\/p>\n

So they know how to celebrate. <\/p>\n

After nearly an hour of dousing each other with bubbly in the clubhouse, drenched Guardians players spilled out of their dugout to continue their celebration and slip-and-slide on the tarp-covered Kauffman Stadium field as the rain began to fall harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an incredible accomplishment,\u201d said Guardians president Chris Antonetti, who lauded the players, coaching staff and his front office for their hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is why we do it,\u201d he said, gesturing to the celebration in the locker room.<\/p>\n

The Guardians clinched a postseason berth with Thursday\u2019s 1-0 win over the Boston Red Sox. They\u2019ve earned a playoff spot eight times since 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many people that have contributed to this win, this championship and I think that\u2019s what makes this feel really good,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the story of this year, how deep the roster was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vogt is the eighth manager to guide a team to the postseason in each of his first three seasons, and the 2026 championship required his most creative efforts. That included overcoming injuries to Jose Ramirez, Angel Mart\u00ednez and rookie Chase DeLauter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were without three of our best hitters for over a month and the boys held it together,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cThey held the season together. Our season could have gone very differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardians tried to bolster the club with the trade-deadline acquisitions of outfielder Jo Adell, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, left-hander Foster Griffin and right-hander Craig Yoho.<\/p>\n

Yet the Guardians trailed Chicago by six games on Aug. 16. Then they won 25 of the next 36, including 15 of their final 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this team did over the last 21 games was really special,\u201d Vogt said. \u201c(The players) deserve all the credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the thing about us, the stretch we had after the All-Star break, the majority of teams could have folded,\u201d Saturday\u2019s winning pitcher, Tanner Bibee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have went back in our shell, but we knew it was going to flip. If you show up every day on the field in the same way, usually the baseball gods reward you in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleveland will wrap its season Sunday, then will be off until opening an AL Division Series at home next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Bibee, whose 15 losses are tied for the major-league lead, sees the playoffs as a reset. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s at zero when it gets to October. The stats don\u2019t matter. Only wins do now. That\u2019s the beautiful thing about October.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) \u2014 Six games back of the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox in mid-August, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13311,1837,5878,13310,1769,5,4],"class_list":["post-815294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ap-online-sports-headlines","tag-ap-top-news","tag-ap-top-news-l-twc-regions","tag-ap-top-news-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-baseball","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117341364113401786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}