CLEVELAND — Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said in the midst of Cleveland’s 10-game losing streak in early July that there was light at the end of the tunnel and things would turn around.
Vogt ended up selling his team a little short, as the Guardians made one of the biggest turnarounds in baseball history.
Cleveland clinched a postseason spot in fittingly improbable fashion. C.J. Kayfus was hit in the arm by a fastball from Texas Rangers reliever Robert Garcia with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning Saturday night, scoring Petey Halpin with the winning run to give the Guardians a 3-2 victory that put them in the playoffs.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time since at least 1920 that a team won on a walk-off hit by pitch to clinch a postseason spot.
“When they walked (Gabriel) Arias (to load the bases), I knew I had a job to do. I knew I was going to get that job done one way or another, but I definitely didn’t think it was going to be like that,” said Kayfus, called up from the minors in early August.
The Guardians (86-74) became the fourth major league team and first in the American League to reach the postseason after having a 10-game losing streak, joining the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers, 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1951 New York Giants.
“It’s exactly us. Of course we’re going to get in on a walk-off hit by pitch” a champagne-soaked Vogt said in the clubhouse as his team was celebrating. “Just to stop and think about where we came from to get here, there’s no words. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. They’ve earned every bit of this.”
According to FanGraphs, the Guardians had a 2.9% chance to make the postseason and a 0.2% chance to win the AL Central on Sept. 1.
Cleveland remains tied with Detroit for the division lead after the Tigers also wrapped up a postseason spot Saturday with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
If Cleveland and Detroit end up tied after Sunday’s games, the Guardians would win the AL Central due to an 8-5 advantage in the season series. They would host a Wild Card Series starting Tuesday.
Even though Steven Kwan and José Ramírez have been the Guardians’ offensive stalwarts all year, others have picked up the slack in September.
Johnathan Rodríguez, called up Wednesday after David Fry was hit in the face by a pitch Tuesday night, batted cleanup and hit a two-run homer in the first inning to put the Guardians up 2-1. It was the first at-bat for Rodríguez, who had a .167 batting average in 29 big league games, since he was called up for his third stint this season.
“They showed me the lineup last night and I showed it to my wife. She said just to play like you did at Triple-A,” Rodríguez said.
On Wednesday, the Guardians became the first major league team to overcome a deficit of 15 1/2 games and take the lead in either division or league play with a 5-1 win over the Tigers. Cleveland was 40-48 and also 6 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot on July 6 after a 7-2 loss in 10 innings to the Tigers extended the losing streak to 10.
Since July 7, the Guardians are an AL-best 47-26.
The 1914 Boston Braves were 15 games back in the National League on July 4 and rallied to win by 10 1/2 games, according to Elias. Since baseball went to division play in 1969, the biggest deficit overcome was 14 games by the 1978 New York Yankees to win the AL East.
On Sept. 4, the Guardians were 69-70 and 11 games behind the Tigers before going 15-1, including a 10-game winning streak that included a three-game sweep in Detroit. It is the largest September lead overcome to tie or take the lead in the division or league, according to Elias. The previous mark was 8 1/2 games by the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals and 1964 Cincinnati Reds.
Cleveland found its way back to the postseason despite reliever Emmanuel Clase and starting pitcher Luis Ortiz being placed on non-disciplinary leave in July as part of investigations into their possible involvement in gambling during games. Ortiz was placed on leave July 3 and Clase on July 28.
“I give our players and coaches and staff and (Vogt) a ton of credit because it was a really hard mountain to climb to make this a reality,” Cleveland president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said. “There were obviously times during the season where this looked really far away, and our group was never daunted by that. They showed up each day with the same energy, the same focus, the same intensity, to try to figure out a way to win a game that night, and that mindset’s really carried us forward to today.”