Indians punch post-season ticket
Print Edition
The Cleveland Indians claimed an American League wild-card berth on Sunday while the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers will play a one-game playoff to determine the league’s second wild-card spot.
Cleveland capped a 10-game, season-ending winning streak with a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins to ensure they would host one AL wild-card playoff game tomorrow.
“Think I’m kind of speechless right now,” said Indians first baseman Nick Swisher, who got Cleveland started with a two-run homer in the first inning.
Their opponent was still undecided as Sunday wins by the Rays and Rangers kept them deadlocked with 91-71 records and set up a do-or-die tiebreaker in Texas.
Tampa Bay scored six runs in the first inning and then held on to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-6, while the Rangers snapped a 2-2 tie in the sixth on their way to beating the Los Angeles Angels 6-2.
Texas, which rebounded from a 5-15 September swoon by finishing with seven straight wins, was expected to start rookie left-hander Martin Perez against Tampa Bay’s 2012 Cy Young winner David Price.
The Rays have been knocked out of the playoffs in their last two post-season appearances by the Rangers.
“We have something to prove in Texas,” slugging third baseman Evan Longoria said.
The winner of Monday’s Rays-Rangers duel will advance to Wednesday’s one-game, wild-card playoff in Cleveland to determine the fourth team for the American League Division Series, which will start on Friday. The Boston Red Sox, Oakland A’s and Detroit Tigers are already in as division winners.
In the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates (94-68) will host the Cincinnati Reds (90-72) at PNC Park in their wild-card contest after completing a three-game sweep of their final regular season series in Cincinnati.
The Boston Red Sox closed the season at 97-65 for the best mark in the American League.
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