Guardians postseason path features plenty of familiar opponents 

On Sunday night, the MLB postseason bracket was officially revealed after the end of the regular season. About an hour before it was revealed, the Guardians finished off their magical comeback in the American League Central with a walk-off home run from Brayan Rocchio that confirmed the Guardians would finish ahead of the Detroit Tigers in division. 

Now the Guardians will get a chance to best the Tigers one more time this season, as the two teams will face off in the American League Wild Card Series in the matchup between the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds. 

And, if the Guardians end up getting past Detroit, their path to the postseason includes plenty of familiar faces to Guardians fans. 

The Guardians will need go through the Tigers and Mariners if they want to make the American League Championship Series again

The Guardians’ best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Tigers will start at 1:08 p.m. on Monday. Although the Guardians have yet to announce a starter, Gavin Williams seems to be a lock to take on Tarik Skubal. 

I wonder how Skubal’s last postseason start at Progressive Field went? 

Skubal’s on pace to win his second straight American League Cy Young and he has a 0.64 ERA in 28 career regular season innings against the Guardians, but he has Thomas’ historic grand slam on his ledger against the Guardians along with his disastrous inning in Cleveland last week. 

But even if Skubal may give the Guardians an edge in Game 1, the Guardians went 8-5 against the Tigers this year which helped them erase Detroit’s 15 1/2 game lead in the division. 

If the Guardians end up besting the Tigers then they’ll face off against the Seattle Mariners in the best-of-five Division Series. The Mariners, who pulled off a comeback of their own to beat the Astros in the American League West, are led by former Guardian Josh Naylor, who has been one of the best players in the American League since joining the club at the trade deadline. 

The last time the two franchises faced off in the postseason, the Mariners defeated Cleveland in five games in the 2001 ALDS. 

If the Guardians advance past that round, they’d face off against either the Red Sox, Yankees or Blue Jays. The Guardians split their season series against the Yankees and Blue Jays and went 2-4 against the Red Sox in the regular season. 

As we all know, the Guardians faced off against the Yankees in last year’s American League Championship Series, which ended up being one of the best series in recent memory, even if it didn’t end the way the Guardians wanted. 

While the Guardians’ path to the postseason was always going to be tough (it is the postseason, after all), this year’s American League field is stacked. But they’ve spent all of the season beating the odds — why should the postseason be any different?