If and when the Guardians reach the postseason, their path forward could be inviting

CLEVELAND, Ohio — If the postseason began after Friday night’s games, including the Guardians’ come-from-behind win over the A’s, they would be the No. 2 seed in the American League’s six-team postseason field.That would be a startling turn of events for a team that puttered around .500 for much of the season.The Guardians would own the No. 2 seed at 79-75 because they had the second-best record next to Tampa Bay among the three division winners in the American League.The third division winner would be Houston at 77-77. Texas has the same record as the Astros, but the Astros own the tiebreaker by going 9-4 against the Rangers during the regular season.Guardians, Athletics starrting lineups for Sept. 19, 2026: Game No. 155Should the Guardians only let José Ramírez bat right-handed? Hey, HoynsieCade Smith’s remarkable consistency puts Guardians closer in historic companyHere’s where things get really interesting for the Guardians.The three wild card teams filling out the rest of the AL bracket would be the Yankees at 89-64, the Red Sox at 84-70 and the White Sox at 78-76.The Yankees and the Red Sox, as the fourth and fifth seeds, would play each other in a best of three wild card series. The winner would advance to play Tampa Bay in the best of five division series.The Astros and the White Sox, on the other side of the bracket as the third and sixth seeds, respectively, would play each other in a best-of-three wild card series. The winner would then advance to play the Guardians in the division series.The White Sox, after losing two out of three to Cleveland at Progressive Field, helped create this scenario by blowing an 8-2 lead against the Tigers on Friday night to lose, 11-8. The loss gave the Guardians a one-game lead over the White Sox.The reward for being the division winner with one of the top two records is a big one in the form of a first-round bye. It gives a team a chance to set their rotation, while their injured and weary players get some much-needed rest. The wild card teams, meanwhile, only get one day off at the end of the regular season before starting their series.In the Guardians’ case, if they actually do hold on and win the AL Central, they could conceivably reach the best-of-seven ALCS without facing the three teams with the best records in the league in Tampa Bay, the Yankees and Red Sox.The Guardians are 1-5 against Tampa Bay, 2-4 against the Yankees and 1-2 against Boston this season. (They play the Red Sox in a three-game series at Fenway Park starting Tuesday night).They would, of course, have to defeat either the Astros or White Sox in the division series to get to the ALCS. The Guardians went 2-4 against Houston and 6-7 against the White Sox this year. But they just won two out of three games from the White Sox to reclaim first place in the AL Central for the first time since July 3. The Astros have been a postseason nemesis for the Guardians over the years, but they are far from the garbage-can-banging powerhouse that they used to be. Then again, they do have MVP candidate Yordan Alvarez and his 40 homers and 105 RBI.The Guardians never really lost contact with the White Sox after they fell out of first place in the Central on July 4. But they did slide to a six-game deficit on Aug. 16.Here’s how the Guards got back in the race.They are 18-9 since Aug. 20. While they were running down the White Sox in the division, they squeezed into the wild card race, holding down the third and final playoff spot until they took over first place with a 6-3 win over the White Sox on Wednesday. September has treated the Guardians well over the last several years. Since the start of the 2022 season, they have gone 78-47 in September.They haven’t been great this September, but they are 10-7 compared to going 13-13 in August and 28-29 since the All-Star break.While they have hit the third fewest homers in the AL this season, they’ve hit 22 in September, the third most in the league.Rookie Travis Bazzana leads the way in that category. He’s hitting .349 (16 for 46) with six homers and 15 RBI in September. Here are some other September contributors:Steven Kwan: .277 (18 for 65).Brayan Rocchio: .269 (14 for 52), three homers, 15 RBI.Angel Martinez: .268 (11 for 41), two homers, five RBI.Patrick Bailey: .263 (10 for 38), one homer, four RBI.Chase DeLauter: .250 (10 for 40), one homer, two RBI.Jo Adell: .234 (15 for 64), two homers, nine RBI.Nathaniel Lowe: .227 (11 for 44), two homers, seven RBI.On the pitching side. starters Gavin Williams (1-1, 3.63) and Parker Messick (1-1, 3.63) have pitched well in September.In the bullpen, closer Cade Smith is 3-0 with three saves and has yet to allow a run this month. Setup man Hunter Gaddis is 2-0 with a 0.87 ERA in 10 games, while Tim Herrin is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA and Erik Sabrowski has a 1.50 ERA in six games.“We haven’t done anything yet,” said manager Stephen Vogt when the Guardians finally regained first place on Wednesday.He’s right. But if they can somehow navigate their way through the remaining eight games on the schedule, while retaining their current position atop the division, the postseason possibilities are intriguing.