Cleveland Guardians Outfielders Make Baseball History in ALDS Game 5 Win

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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