The Cleveland Guardians officially hold a playoff spot with a week left in the regular season, completing one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent baseball history.
Cleveland woke up Sunday morning in the third and final AL Wild Card spot, just ahead of the Houston Astros via tiebreaker. The Guardians swept their doubleheader with the Minnesota Twins on Saturday while Houston dropped their second straight game to Seattle.
It’s the culmination of an absolutely torrid stretch. The Guardians have won 10 games in a row and 15 of their last 16.
What makes this different is where they started. At one point this season, Cleveland was 15.5 games behind Detroit in the AL Central. Now they’re just 1.0 game back with three head-to-head matchups against the Tigers remaining.
That’s right – they might not even need the wild card spot.
Let’s put this run in perspective. After a brutal 10-game losing streak that stretched from late June into early July, the Guardians sat eight games under .500. They’re now 84-71, a full 13 games over the break-even mark.
That’s a 21-game swing in the standings over roughly three months.
Baseball’s got plenty of room for luck and momentum, but this stretch goes beyond even the most optimistic projections. The Guardians have found something special during this run, and if they can maintain it, there’s no telling how far they can ride this wave.
From where I’m sitting, just reaching this position seemed unfathomable a few months ago. Now Cleveland controls it’s own destiny heading into the final week.
