The Cleveland Guardians punched an improbable ticket to the Major League Baseball playoffs on Saturday with a 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers — sealed when C.J. Kayfus was hit by a pitch from Robert Garcia with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning.
The walkoff win means the Guardians are assured of at least an American League wild card berth.
They remained tied with the Detroit Tigers atop the AL Central division going into the final day of the regular season.
The Tigers, whose September swoon saw them plummet out of the AL Central lead, also secured a post-season berth with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
The Guardians own the head-to-head tiebreaker and will claim the division if both emerge Sunday with the same record.
It’s a remarkable outcome for Cleveland, who lost 10 straight games from June 26-July 6. They trailed the Tigers by 15.5 games in early July and were still 11 games back to start September.
Cleveland’s victory also eliminated the Houston Astros, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
In other games on the penultimate day of the regular season, the Chicago Cubs — already in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 — secured home field advantage in their wild card series against San Diego with a 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
First baseman Michael Busch hit two home runs, the third multi-homer game of his career.
Busch bashed a leadoff shot off Cardinals pitcher Michael McGreevy in the first inning and added a two-run homer off McGreevy in the fifth.
He added a double in the third inning and drove in a run with a triple in the seventh. But he was denied a final chance to complete the cycle when he was intentionally walked in the eighth inning.
New York’s Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Ryan McMahon all homered as the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-1 to remain locked in a race with Toronto for baseball’s American League East division title.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for arguing called strikes against Judge in the fifth inning, after which the New York captain belted a two-run single to help seal the victory.
Judge had staked the Yankees to a 1-0 lead with his 53rd home run of the season in the first inning.
Stanton and McMahon added solo homers off Baltimore pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano in the second and rookie pitcher Cam Schlittler tossed seven shut-out innings.
The Yankees, already assured of at least a wild card berth, won their seventh straight game to stay level with the Blue Jays atop the division.
Toronto beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 and hold the tiebreaker over the Yankees if they remain tied after Sunday’s games.
“That’s the beauty of our sport,” Boone said of the division crown coming down to the final day of a campaign in which each team plays 162 games.
The race for the final National League wild card spot will also come down to Sunday after the New York Mets stayed alive with a 5-0 victory over the Miami Marlins.
The Mets, boasting a $340 million payroll and a roster stuffed with All-Star talent, had the best record in baseball through June 12 but their late-season struggles have them battling with the Cincinnati Reds for the last National League berth.
The Reds, chasing their first post-season berth since 2020, beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4. They are tied with the Mets for the final wild card but own the tiebreaker if they finish with the same record.
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: Nick Cammett/Getty Images
