Guardians Make Playoffs on Rookie's Walk-Off Hit-By-Pitch

Cleveland's resurrection ranks among the great turnarounds in baseball history.

C.J. Kayfus was an unlikely hero of the Guardians' improbable turnaround. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Guardians could only have made the 2025 postseason one way—the painful way.

Cleveland rookie first baseman C.J. Kayfus was hit by a pitch in a tie game with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth Saturday, earning the Guardians a 3–2 win over the Rangers and locking up the team's seventh postseason berth in the last decade.

And here we go.#GuardsBall | #GuardiWins pic.twitter.com/QdibocPgy7

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) September 28, 2025

The ending was emblematic of Cleveland's stunning, skillful, lucky in-season resurrection after a 10-game losing streak in July that left the team 40-48.

As late as July 8, the Guardians trailed the Tigers by 15.5 games in the American League Central division race. Cleveland enters the final day of the season tied with Detroit, needing only a win or a Tigers loss to clinch the division by virtue of its head-to-head tiebreaker.

At 87-74, the Guardians are defying a .494 Pythagorean winning percentage roughly on par with the 75-85 Braves. Only three players on the team—superstar third baseman José Ramírez, left fielder Steven Kwan and pitcher Gavin Williams—have accumulated more than two bWAR.

Somehow, Cleveland has endured. It will meet Texas again Sunday in a bid to finish off baseball's greatest comeback.

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