The Cleveland Guardians claimed their third straight AL Central division title thanks to their 11-5 win over the Kansas City Royals and the Chicago White Sox losing 9-6 to the Colorado Rockies.
Cleveland will be the AL's No. 2 seed and receive a bye to the ALDS. The White Sox, meanwhile, are now locked into the No. 6 seed and will be the road team against the AL West champion - either the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers - in the best-of-three wild-card series.
Still got division like a line between two dots.#GuardsBall | #StandGuard pic.twitter.com/5Iy8tGMBXn
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) September 27, 2026
It's the Guardians' 14th AL Central crown, by far the most since the division was established in 1994.
The Guardians rallied to win the division after being six games behind the White Sox in mid-August. Chicago was in first place from July 4 until Sept. 18, when Cleveland took over first place for good. Despite winning five of their last eight games, the White Sox were unable to pull back into a tie.
The White Sox played from behind early against Colorado on Saturday, allowing three runs in the first inning and four in the ninth. That allowed Cleveland to put the division on ice with a monster game in Kansas City. Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio each hit two homers for the Guardians in their win, while Chase DeLauter also went deep.
Cleveland will now rest up and open its postseason next Saturday at Progressive Field against the winner of the White Sox-AL West wild-card series.
Although they fell short in the division race, the young White Sox became the first team in MLB history to reach the playoffs after three consecutive 100-loss seasons. They'll play the franchise's first postseason game since 2021 on Tuesday in either Arlington or Houston.
