LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The Cleveland Guardians completed the biggest regular-season comeback in baseball history on Sunday to clinch the American League's (AL) Central division title as the big-spending New York Mets were eliminated from playoff contention.
The final day of Major League Baseball's (MLB) regular season campaign left all eyes on the Guardians, 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 ensured that the Guardians would enter the postseason as divisional winners. Cleveland capped that success with a 9-8 victory over the Texas Rangers, Brayan Rocchio's three-run walk-off 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 12 June with 45 wins and 24 defeats.