The Cleveland Guardians entered the day with a chance to safe a playoff spot, placing their postseason standing squarely in focus.
Right here’s the place the Guardians stand after at this time’s 1-0 victory over the Boston Pink Sox, and what comes subsequent of their push towards the postseason.
The Cleveland Guardians beat Boston in a pitchers duel at Fenway Park, in keeping with MLB.com’s official field rating. The win punched Cleveland’s ticket to the American League playoffs for a 3rd straight season, the nineteenth postseason journey in franchise historical past, and it got here the arduous approach, with the offense doing simply sufficient and the pitching employees doing the remainder.
The Guardians haven’t gained a World Sequence since 1948, and have performed in solely 4 within the 78 years since then, in 2016, 1997, 1995 and 1954.
Cleveland improved to 83-76, a document that locks up no less than the No. 6 seed within the American League. The Chicago White Sox clinched their very own playoff spot the identical night time at 82-77, night up two rosters that can be watching one another’s scoreboard outcomes all weekend.
Reporter Jeff Schudel confirmed the identical shutout last, noting the win locked up no less than a wild-card berth whereas pushing Cleveland one sport up on Chicago within the Central standings.
Supervisor Stephen Vogt has now guided Cleveland to the postseason in all three of his seasons on the helm, going 3-for-3 since changing Terry Francona.
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Cleveland isn’t truly enjoying for Wild Card Sequence dwelling discipline. That’s not on the desk, it doesn’t matter what occurs at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas Metropolis the place they play the ultimate three video games of the common season towards the Royals.
The American League’s prime two seeds skip the wild-card spherical solely on a bye. The No. 3 seed hosts the No. 6 seed in a best-of-three, and the No. 4 seed hosts the No. 5 within the different. Win the division, and Cleveland turns into the No. 2 seed, skipping the wild-card spherical and reaching home-field solely within the ALDS. End second, and Cleveland is the No. 6 seed, hitting the street for the wild-card spherical no matter how this weekend goes.
The actual prize this weekend is the division, not wild-card internet hosting rights.
Cleveland’s magic quantity is three to win the AL Central. Chicago owns the head-to-head tiebreaker, so Cleveland can’t win a tie and has to complete outright forward over three video games on the Kansas Metropolis Royals. Any mixture of Cleveland wins and White Sox losses to Colorado that provides as much as three closes out the division. A sweep in Kansas Metropolis does it alone.
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Win the Central, and Cleveland turns into the No. 2 seed with a bye, ready within the ALDS for the winner of a wild-card matchup between the AL West champion and whichever Central runner-up will get ignored — seemingly the White Sox, Texas Rangers or Houston Astros.
End second, and the journey will get more durable quick. Cleveland opens on the street in a best-of-three towards the AL West champion, with Texas and Houston separated by half a sport as of Thursday and Houston holding the tiebreaker if the 2 end even. Survive that spherical, and the White Sox would seemingly be ready anyway, sitting within the ALDS because the No. 2 seed.
Wild Card Sequence video games begin Sept. 29. The Division Sequence follows Oct. 3.
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