Guardians clinch AL Central to complete MLB-record turnaround

The Cleveland Guardians completed one of the most remarkable in-season turnarounds ever, clinching the AL Central title Sunday after the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 at Fenway Park.

The Guardians, who punched their postseason ticket Saturday, will slot in as the AL's No. 3 seed and host the sixth-seeded Tigers in a best-of-three wild-card series beginning Tuesday at Progressive Field. The Tigers needed to finish above Cleveland in order to win the division after losing the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Although the Tigers' loss clinched the division, the Guardians still took care of business, beating the Texas Rangers 9-8 on Brayan Rocchio's 10th-inning walk-off homer.

Cleveland was 15.5 games behind the first-place Tigers on July 8 and 10.5 back on Sept. 1. The Guardians then took off, going 21-7 during the month to catch Detroit atop the division. Their 15.5-game deficit is the largest ever erased by a team to win either its division or league (before 1968). The previous record was a 15-game deficit overcome by the 1914 NL champion Boston Braves.

The feat marks the Guardians' fourth playoff appearance and third division title since 2020. It's also the Guardians' 13th AL Central crown, by far the most since the division was formed in 1994.

The Guardians-Tigers wild-card series is a rematch of last year's ALDS, which Cleveland won in five games.