Cleveland Guardians Clinch 2024 American League Central Division Title

The Cleveland Guardians win their 12th American League Central title.

Sep 19, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, right, celebrates with his players after the Guardians beat the Minnesota Twins and clinched a playoff berth at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Guardians punched their ticket to the 2024 MLB Postseason last Thursday. However, they now have another accolade to add to their incredible regular season run.

The Kansas City Royals lost 9-0 to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday evening, officially making the Guardians the 2024 American League Central division champions.

This is an incredible accomplishment for the Guardians. This is now the franchise's 12 AL Central title, and they did it in a season when many counted them out before the season even began.

Very few outlets predicted Cleveland would finish the season at the top of the AL Central. Many thought the Minnesota Twins would run away with the division, but now the Twins are fighting for a playoff spot in the final week of the season.

Some analysts even believed that the Guardians would finish third in the Central, with the Detroit Tigers showing plenty of promise from their young core at the end of the 2023 season.

Instead, Cleveland ran away with the divsion early on the seaosn and truly never looked back. They've been in first place in the AL Central for the last 169 days with their largest lead being 9.0 games on June 25. Their largest decident was just 1.5 games on April 2.

Sep 19, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, middle, celebrates with players after the Guardians beat the Minnesota Twins at Progressive Field. The Guardians clinched a playoff berth with the win. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Royals did give the Guardians a scare at the beginning of September when they moved into a tie with Cleveland at the top of the leaderboard. However, Cleveland had an incredible response to that pressure and now clinched the division with a 7.5 lead over Kansas City, who currently remains in second.

The Guardians have clinched a spot in the playoffs and won their division, but they can't stop there. They're still fighting to be a top-two seed in the postseason bracket, which would give them a critical bye in the first round of the playoffs.