How the historic Cleveland Guardians season came to an end on Thursday

The Cleveland Guardians' season has officially come to a close. The offense and pitching staff ran out of gas, resulting in a 6-3 loss to the rival Detroit Tigers. The Guardians will now go home while the Tigers are off to Seattle to take on the Mariners in the ALDS.

The game was a tense one through six innings. A Jose Ramirez single tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth, while a Dillon Dingler home run gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the top of the sixth. A one-run deficit for the Guardians has not been a problem for the past month. However, that requires the pitching to be nearly perfect.

Stephen Vogt pulled Slade Cecconi after 2.1 innings, meaning the bullpen was going to have to show up in a big way. And they did, for the most part. Tim Herrin got the final two outs of the third inning after allowing a run and Joey Cantillo provided 2.2 innings of one-run relief. Perhaps he should have stayed in longer.

The wheels ultimately fell off in the top of the seventh, when Hunter Gaddis came in with two runs on. After loading the bases, he allowed three straight singles to give the Tigers a 6-1 lead. With this Guardians offense, that lead look insurmountable.

That ended up being the case. Cleveland provided some vintage "Guards Ball" magic when two men scored on an error at first base, but Ramirez was thrown out trying to advance to second and the rally was done. This led to the eventual final score of 6-3, and the season ending in heartbreaking fashion.

Javy Báez is SO smooth with it 😮‍💨

Another impressive tag gets the @Tigers out of a dangerous spot! pic.twitter.com/h7UzAMyrJ9
— MLB (@MLB) October 2, 2025

When looking at the entire series, the Guardians blew a golden opportunity in Game 1. They had just clinched the division following a historic comeback and had a chance to destroy the confidence of the Tigers.

Tarik Skubal was electric for much of the game, but a Javy Baez error to begin the bottom of the ninth put Ramirez at third base with no outs. No one could drive him home and the Guardians fell by a 2-1 final. That made it an uphill battle for this young, inexperienced group.

There will be plenty of time to analyze what went wrong over the next few months. And eventually, fans will look back in awe at the magical 15.5-game comeback to clinch the division.

For now, this loss is a bummer and yet another early postseason exit for the franchise that has not won a World Series since 1948.