The Cleveland Guardians shouldn’t have been able to dig out of the ditch they were in.
But somehow, with a week left in the regular season, they officially reside in a playoff spot.
The Saturday combinations worked out that Cleveland woke up Sunday morning in the third and final AL Wild Card spot, just ahead of the Houston Astros via tiebreaker.
The Guardians won both games of their doubleheader with the Minnesota Twins on Saturday, and the Astros lost to the Seattle Mariners for a second consecutive day.
It’s been one of the most epic runs in Cleveland baseball history.
The Guardians have won 10 games in a row, and 15 of their last 16.
They also are just 1.0 game back in the AL Central Division. At one point this season, they were 15.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers.
The Guardians still get to play Detroit three more times, so they might not even need the wild card if they just win those games.
To just be in this spot at all is pretty much unfathomable.
Everyone keeps bringing up the 10-game losing streak the Guardians had the went from late June into early July, but it’s very valid. At the end of that skid, they were eight games under .500.
They’re now 13 games over .500 at 84-71.
Baseball is a hard game with a lot of luck involved, but this stretch belies even the logic that allows room for luck.
The Guardians have been in a magical place of late, and if they stay there, who knows how far they can go?
MORE: Dodgers, Giants combine for absurd history not done since 1896 Brooklyn Grooms
