Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – The Cleveland Guardians completed the biggest regular-season comeback in baseball history on Sunday to clinch the American League’s Central division title as the big-spending New York Mets were eliminated from playoff contention. The final day of Major League Baseball’s regular season campaign left all eyes on Cleveland, who were aiming to pinch the Central crown after a dramatic collapse by the Detroit Tigers.
The Guardians trailed Detroit by a massive 15-and-a-half game deficit in July, a margin that no team has ever overturned. The previous biggest comeback was 15 games, held by the Boston Braves in 1914. But the Guardians’ resurgent second half of the season — combined with Detroit’s collapse — allowed Cleveland to sneak into top spot. The Guardians had assured themselves of at least a playoff berth with a 3-2 defeat of the Texas Rangers on Saturday. However, Detroit’s 4-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday ensured that the Guardians would enter the postseason as divisional winners.
Related news
Cleveland capped that success with a 9-8 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday, Brayan Rocchio’s three-run walkoff home run delivering victory in extra innings. The results mean Cleveland will now host Detroit in a best-of-three American League wild card series starting on Tuesday. The other American League wild card series will see the Red Sox take on the New York Yankees in the Bronx on Tuesday. The Yankees finished second in the AL East race after Toronto captured the title on Sunday with a 13-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
In other final-day action on Sunday, the New York Mets saw their hopes of reaching the playoffs end in a 4-0 defeat on the road to the Miami Marlins. The Mets — who reached the National League Championship Series last season — had reloaded for the 2025 campaign with an expensively assembled roster that included Juan Soto, signed from the rival Yankees in a record-breaking $765 million deal last December. Yet the Mets’ payroll — the second-highest in baseball after the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers — was not enough to prevent a mid-season meltdown that meant they will play no part in the postseason.
The Mets boasted the best record in baseball on June 12 with 45 wins and 24 defeats. After that impressive start to the campaign, however, the wheels fell off and the team went 38-55 thereafter, finishing the campaign 83-79, to just miss out on a wild card berth to the Cincinnati Reds. “It’s hard to describe,” downcast Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after Sunday’s loss. “I just got done addressing the team and there’s no words to describe what we’re going through. There’s pain, there’s frustration. We came into the season with a lot of expectations. And here we are going home. Not only did we fall short, but we didn’t even get into October. And this is a team that is built to play deep into October. We’re pissed, sad, and frustrated. You name it.”
Cincinnati, who finished third in the National League Central Division behind Milwaukee and the Chicago Cubs, will now face a three-game wild card series at the Los Angeles Dodgers starting on Tuesday. The Dodgers wrapped up their regular-season campaign with a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in what was pitcher Clayton Kershaw’s last regular-season start before retirement. Kershaw left the mound to a standing ovation after pitching 5 1/3 scoreless innings.
© 2024 AFP
