Cleveland Indians clinch fourth postseason berth in five years

For the fourth time since 2016, the Cleveland Indians are heading to October as the club clinched a postseason berth with a dramatic victory over the first-place Chicago White Sox.

The Cleveland Indians are officially on their way back to the postseason for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

After missing out on the playoffs in 2019, the Indians clinched their fourth postseason berth in the last five years’ Tuesday by defeating the AL Central leading Chicago White Sox 5-3 innings.

Tuesday’s postseason clinching win came in dramatic fashion as the Indians mounted a comeback on the bottom of the 10th inning and walked-off Chicago with a three-run home run by Jose Ramirez.

At 31-24, the Indians still trail Chicago by three games in the Central standings and two games behind the Minnesota Twins for second place in the division. Thus, the Tribe’s most likely playoff seed still remains as the seventh seed which would if the season ended today would set up a first round matchup on the west coast with the AL West champion Oakland A’s.

If the Indians do not win the AL Central, it will be their first trip to the playoffs as a Wild Card team since 2013 as they won the division in three-straight seasons from 2016-18. In fact, it would be just the second wild card berth in team history as the Tribe has either won the division or American League pennant in each of their postseason trips outside of 2013.

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The three-game MLB Wild Card round is scheduled to begin September 29 and 30th.