Cleveland Baseball Insider

Guardians complete historic comeback and claim AL Central crown in epic fashion

The Cleveland Guardians are on a magical run and have made MLB history with another Central division title.
Steve Kubitza|
Sep 28, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; A member of the Cleveland Strikers waves an American League Central Division champions flag during the game between the Cleveland Guardians and the Texas Rangers at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Sep 28, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; A member of the Cleveland Strikers waves an American League Central Division champions flag during the game between the Cleveland Guardians and the Texas Rangers at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

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Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians are your 2025 American League Central division champions, just like they drew it up.

Sunday was another thrilling day of "Guards Ball" that featured enough drama and intrigue to make everyone forget another Cleveland team had a game on as well.

The Guardians entered needing a win or a Detroit Tigers loss to take the division crown. Luckily, some stress was taken away when the Tigers fell in Boston while the Guardians were wrapping up their own game.

Cleveland entered the bottom of the eighth trailing 5-4 and had just clinched the division. But they did not let up and forced extra innings. Again, they fell behind 8-5 after an ugly top half of the 10th inning, only to plate four runs in the bottom half to close out the year in the most dramatic way possible. Brayan Rocchio provided the heroics and will have fans watching his blast on repeat until the postseason begins Tuesday.

The entire month of September has been a fever dream for Guardians fans. And if it seemed historic, that's because it was. The team now holds the record for the largest divisional comeback in MLB history.

This record dates all the way back to the 1914 Boston Braves, who went from 15 games back all the way to winning the NL pennant and then the World Series. The Guardians have now surpassed that mark and will hope for the same end result.

They battled all the way back from 15.5 games back to surpass the Detroit Tigers and make history. This sets up yet another battle against the Tigers starting Tuesday in the AL Wild Card round.

Tarik Skubal is expected to square off against Gavin Williams, and Progressive Field should be absolutely rocking from first pitch, which will be at 1:08 pm.

There is so much to say about this team, both for the entire season and just from this weekend. A proper recap of the year can be written once the games are officially over. For now, fans are hoping this is the beginning of another deep run.

In addition to clinching the division, Stephen Vogt has appeared to set himself apart as the obvious choice for AL Manager of the Year. Even his decision to place Johnathan Rodriguez in the cleanup spot the past two days paid off. Fans on social media were melting down, but he stuck to his belief in the slugger and it paid off in a big way.

Everything seems to be going right for the Guardians. However, the Tigers will get some time to regroup and Skubal will likely not play as rattled as he did last week when he snapped a ball through his legs on what should have been a relatively routine play.

The action begins Tuesday, and if the overall theme of the season holds, it will be a wild series.

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Steve Kubitza
STEVE KUBITZA

Steve is a lifelong Cleveland sports fan who proudly wears his Guardians, Browns, and Cavs gear in his current home of Santa Barbara. He has covered Cleveland sports online for the past decade and is still waiting for the Browns to draft a QB who signs a second contract in town.

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