Guardians' comeback story ends with Game 3 loss to Tigers in Wild Card Series

CLEVELAND — The Guardians beat the odds all year long, overcoming the largest deficit in major league history to chase down the Tigers and win the Central Division title in stunning fashion. That didn't do them a bit of good Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field in Game 3 of their Wild Card Series against Detroit. Cleveland was held to three hits through six innings and the Tigers broke it open in the seventh, as the Guardians were eliminated from the postseason with a 6-3 loss. "There's a lot of mixed feelings. The predominant feeling is devastation," said Game 3 starting pitcher Slade Cecconi. "Everybody on this team rode the lows and the highs together, and the lows and the highs this year were as extreme as you can create, and for it to come to a halt this quick feels terrible. "But with those feelings, you don't want to lose what we did and what we accomplished from where we were. We did something that no team has ever done before in this league, and this league's been going on for a while." Showing the resilience they displayed all season, the Guardians rallied for two runs in the eighth to make it respectable, but the Tigers got their revenge. "It stings for it to end this way," said Stephen Vogt, who is a strong candidate to win his second straight Manager of the Year Award. "I couldn't be more proud of what we accomplished. It's not enough. We want more. And really the message is 'Let this sting.' We're close. We are really close. We're not quite there yet. There's things we need to improve upon. There's things we need to get better with. "But the overarching theme is I'm so proud of that group for not quitting. They had every excuse, every reason thrown at them to quit at any point during this summer and they refused to do that, even today. They could have easily just given up and stopped fighting and everyone would have understood. But they didn't. They came right back, made it interesting there at the end." Offense was a problem for much of the series — and regular season — for the Guardians, who scored once in a Game 1 loss to Tarik Skubal and had only one run through seven innings in Game 3. Of their 10 runs in the series, five came in the eighth inning of a 6-1 Game 2 victory. The pitching that carried them to their great heights became an issue, too. Needing a long outing from Cecconi with the bullpen taxed, the Guardians instead got a short one. The right-hander threw 26 pitches in the first and lasted only 2 1/3 innings after allowing consecutive singles in the third. Vogt was asked if the plan was to have Cecconi go three or four innings and turn it over to left-hander Joey Cantillo and the bullpen. "We talked through a bunch of scenarios," he said. "We had to watch the game and we had to stop it right there, and we did it at the right time." Dillon Dingler hit a solo shot off Cantillo to put the Tigers in front 2-1 in the sixth and Detroit put away the game with two runs apiece off left-hander Erik Sabrowski and righty Hunter Gaddis the following inning. Rookie George Valera's leadoff double led to the tying run in the fourth after he scored on a grounder between first and second from Jose Ramirez. Ramirez was also at the plate when Cleveland scored the final two runs of the season, reaching on an error from Tigers closer Will Vest that sent Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan home after Rocchio singled and Kwan got his second hit of the series with a double. Ramirez was thrown out at second trying to stretch the error. And there was no ninth-inning rally to save the season this time. "There's no ending of the season. It doesn't end gradually. It just halts," Vogt said. "We've been with each other every day for eight months, more time with each other than our family, working together, laughing together, crying together, yelling together, you name it. Now it stops." But it will continue for Vogt and the Guardians next year with the same plan — win the World Series. "Obviously, you feel that you don't want to go home that early and obviously how hard we work, but you got to keep your head up, you got to keep working and go back stronger because you know that the goal remains the same," Ramirez said through an interpreter. "It hurts, but I think it's a good motivator, as well," Kwan said. "In those days where it's cold out, you don't feel like getting out of bed, just remember you don't want to feel this again, and I think that'll get us over the hump. I think that'll be really important to not be complacent and just make sure we're getting as good as we can." "There's a reason winning a World Series is the greatest feeling on Earth. It's because when you don't do it, it's the worst feeling," Austin Hedges said. "So we got a lot to learn from and luckily now the majority of this group has been to one or two or more (postseasons). It's going to be another young group, but an experienced young group that's overcome a lot of adversity and that type of group is going to be a big problem for the rest of the league." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.