Cleveland Indians Clinch American League Central Title

The Cleveland Indians are your 2016 American League Central Division champions.

It’s official. The Cleveland Indians are the 2016 American League Central Division champions. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

The Tribe wrapped up its first division crown since 2007 on Monday night with a 7-4 victory over the rival Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.

Cleveland has spent 116 days in first place in the Central this season, and has sat atop the division alone without interruption since June 17th. The Indians unseat the defending World Champion Kansas City Royals as the cream of the AL Central crop.

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This marks the eighth Central Division championship for the Tribe in franchise history, and secures the club a berth in the postseason for the 12th time. Cleveland was last a playoff participant in 2013, when it was eliminated in the AL Wild Card game by the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Indians have appeared in five World Series, winning two, but the most recent championship came some 68 years ago in 1948. The Tribe lost the Fall Classic in 1954, 1995, and 1997.

At 91-65, Cleveland currently has the third-best record in the American League, trailing the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers. With only six games remaining in the regular season, the team has an uphill climb, and may have to settle for the No. 2 or No. 3 seed.

The title is made extra sweet by the adversity the Indians have faced in 2016, most notably the absence of all-star left fielder Michael Brantley for all but 11 games due to complications from offseason shoulder surgery and more recently the losses of Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar from the starting rotation to injuries of their own.

The Tribe has blended the AL’s best pitching staff with a surprisingly robust offense to be one of the more complete teams in all of baseball this season, and despite the injuries, the team and the fans that support it have high expectations for a deep playoff run.

Next: Tribe to use Hybrid Rotation in Playoffs?

Cleveland will finish up the regular season with three more games against Detroit before playing its final three games in Kansas City against the Royals. The American League Divisional Series opens with Game One on Thursday, October 6th, and for the first time in nearly a decade, the Indians won’t be watching it from home.