Roundup
Cleveland Guardians
Chicago White Sox
Tampa Bay Rays
New York Yankees
Guardians’ historic comeback sets up ALCS, AL Central roundup
The Cleveland Guardians completed a historic comeback against the Chicago White Sox and now turn their attention to the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship Series starting tomorrow.
By the PickALeague Newsroom · Published · Source: PickALeagueSummary written with AI assistance — how we workLire en français →
There were no AL Central teams on the field yesterday, but the division still took center stage as the Cleveland Guardians finished off a historic comeback against the Chicago White Sox to punch their ticket to the American League Championship Series.
Guardians complete rare 0-2 series comeback
As noted by MLB Trade Rumors, the Guardians fell behind 0-2 to the White Sox in their Division Series before ripping off three straight wins to take the best-of-five. By doing so, Cleveland became the first team since the 2017 New York Yankees to win a five-game postseason series after losing the first two contests.
The rally reinforces Cleveland’s status atop the AL Central after an 85-77 regular season. They edged the White Sox by a single game in the standings (Chicago finished 84-78) and have now backed that up by knocking out their division rival in October.
Showdown with Rays next in ALCS
According to MLB Trade Rumors, the AL’s top two seeds will square off in the Championship Series, with the Tampa Bay Rays hosting the Guardians in a best-of-seven that opens tomorrow at 7 p.m. CT. The Rays have announced Drew Rasmussen as their Game 1 starter.
Cleveland heads into the matchup fresh off a full five-game grind against Chicago, while Tampa enters with more rest and home-field advantage to start the series. No specifics have yet been reported on how the Guardians will line up their pitching, but they will need to transition quickly from a short series sprint to the longer ALCS format.
White Sox, Twins, Tigers and Royals into offseason mode
For the rest of the AL Central, the focus is already on the offseason. The White Sox, who posted a strong 84-78 record, see their year end abruptly at the hands of their division champions after coming within a game of Cleveland in the regular-season race.
The Minnesota Twins (77-85), Detroit Tigers (76-86) and Kansas City Royals (69-93) have been idle since the end of the regular season, and no major developments were reported for those clubs over the past 24 hours. Their records, though, underline the gap they must close to challenge the standard Cleveland just set at the top of the division.