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Cleveland Guardians Outfielders Make Baseball History in ALDS Game 5 Win

The Cleveland Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon to clinch a spot in the ALCS. In the win, a pair of Guardians outfielders made some baseball history.

Brady Farkas

Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan (38) hits a single in the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers during game five of the ALDS for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Progressive Field on Oct 12.
Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan (38) hits a single in the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers during game five of the ALDS for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Progressive Field on Oct 12. / David Richard-Imagn Images
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On Saturday, the Cleveland Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers 7-3 in Game 5 of the American League Division Series. The Guardians won the series 3-2 and will advance to take on the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. That will begin Monday night.

In the Saturday win, Guardians star Steven Kwan went 3-for-5 while Lane Thomas went 2-for-4 with a grand slam and five RBI.

Both players ended up making unique history, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

First, with regards to Kwan:

most hits in best-of-5 postseason series:

2001 ALDS Ichiro Suzuki: 12
1995 ALDS Edgar Martínez: 12
2024 ALDS Steven Kwan: 11
1995 ALDS Jay Buhner: 11
1995 NLDS Marquis Grissom: 11
1982 ALCS Fred Lynn: 11
1976 ALCS Chris Chambliss: 11

One of the best pure hitters in baseball, Kwan hit .524 in the ALDS. This followed up a regular season in which he hit .292 with 14 homers, 44 RBI and 12 stolen bases. He also posted a .793 OPS, although he only got 480 at-bats after battling injury.

As for Thomas, the Guardians acquired him at the trade deadline in a deal with the Washington Nationals. For the season as a whole, he hit .237 with 15 homers, 63 RBI and 32 stolen bases.

Also per Langs:

Lane Thomas’ 5 RBI are the most in a postseason game when facing elimination by a Cleveland player since RBI official (1920)

Thomas is 29 years old. The Guardians and Yankees will open up the ALCS at 7:38 p.m. ET on Monday. Neither team has announced a starter as of this posting.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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