The Cleveland Guardians had two walk-off wins on Friday. Now, where do they stand in the wild-card playoff race?
The Cleveland Guardians were able to take both games of their doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers on Friday, winning each on a walk-off.
Progressive Field was buzzing all day from the wins, with the Guardians making sure to keep pace in the wild-card race. Playing against a team behind them in the standings, such as the Tigers, Cleveland was able to pick up some needed wins.
Every game matters heavily right now, with the Guardians fighting for playoff positioning in the American League wild-card standings. One win can propel a team up the standings, while one loss can doom them for the remainder of the season.
So entering Saturday's slate of games, where do the Guardians stand in the wild-card race?
Currently, Cleveland has a one-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays for the final spot in the wild-card. However, after they dropped a series to Toronto earlier this week, the Blue Jays do have the tiebreaker.
Behind the Blue Jays, the Texas Rangers sit just two games behind the Guardians. And the Baltimore Orioles are only three games back with a few weeks left to play.
All in all, the Guardians have some work to do over the final stretch of games if they want to get into the playoffs. But this team has the utmost confidence whenever they take the field, and they have gone 6-4 over their last 10 games overall.
After the Tigers series, Cleveland will be heading to Baltimore for a matchup with the Orioles. This could give them a chance to push Baltimore down the standings even more, taking one competitor out of the equation.
But manager Stephen Vogt wants his guys to focus on what they can, which is playing good baseball. Vogt has helped this team reach the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, so he understands the pressure that comes at this time of the year.
“We control our destiny,” Vogt said. “We're playing a lot of the teams that we're either competing for a Wild Card spot with or that we're chasing in the division. You can't ask for anything more.
“We just need to go play good baseball and win games. We have control over that.”
Cleveland is only 2.5 games back of the AL Central division as well. But for now, the focus is just on taking things one game at a time, letting the games come to them over the final few weeks of the season.
