Cleveland Guardians AL Central Magic Number Tracker

Originally posted on Cleveland Guardians on SI
By Tommy Wild | Last updated Sep 19, 2024 6:45 AM ET

The Cleveland Guardians are on the precipice of another postseason berth. While they're closing in on clinching a spot in the playoffs, the goal remains winning the American League Central for this team.

Cleveland's magic number to clinch the AL Central is currently at 4 after they took down the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals 4-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers.

The Guardians, who have an 88-65 record, currently hold a 6.0-game lead over the Kansas City Royals in the division. However, the Royals do own the tiebreaker over Cleveland in the event the two teams finish with the same record. The Guardians have nine regular-season games remaining.

This goes back to Kansas taking the regular season series for the Guardians, thanks to their victory over Cleveland on August 28.

Cleveland winning the AL Central would be a perfect ending to an incredible season. The Guardians have spent 166 days in first place in the division, with a lead as large as 9.0 games at one point. Their largest deficit was just 1.5 games, which occurred on April 2 of the season.

While the Guardians need to focus on winning the division first, they're also in a position to have a key seed in the playoffs. If the season ended today, Cleveland would be the second seed in the American League. This means they would get a first-round bye and get to line up their fully rested pitching staff for the ALDS.

But as was mentioned earlier, winning the division is the first step, and the Guardians are closing in on that.

This article first appeared on Cleveland Guardians on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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