From the shore of Lake Erie to the Kentucky border, baseball's regular season is set for a dramatic final week in the state of Ohio.
The Cleveland Guardians have a chance to complete the biggest comeback in the history of divisional play. They now trail Detroit by one game in the AL Central after once being 15 1/2 back.
At the southern end of the state, Cincinnati pulled into a tie Sunday for the final wild card in the National League with the New York Mets — and the Reds have the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two.
No team has ever won a division after being more than 14 games behind, and Cleveland's 15 1/2-game deficit in early July doesn't even do this comeback justice.
As recently as Sept. 11, Detroit led the division by 9 1/2 over Cleveland. Since then, the Tigers (85-71) have been trapped in a Motown Meltdown, losing nine of 10 while the Guardians (84-72) went on a 10-game winning streak that was finally snapped Sunday. Cleveland cut the lead from 9 1/2 games to one in a span of only 10 days.
For the Reds, the situation has looked bleak at various points. They were six games out of a playoff spot on Sept. 6 — and also trailed San Francisco and Arizona — before a New York skid helped the Reds pull within 1 1/2 games less than a week later.
The Cincinnati fell three games behind, but a four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs now has the Reds and Mets even, with the Diamondbacks only a game back of them.
Other races that are coming down to the wire:
