BOSTON — The Detroit Tigers are going back to Cleveland.
The Tigers lost to the Boston Red Sox 4-3 in the regular-season finale on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.
Detroit finished the season 87-74, one win better than last year, and will enter the postseason as the third Wild Card and No. 6 seed for the second straight year.
The Tigers will play at AL Central Division champion Cleveland on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, if necessary. The winner of the best-of-three series advances to play second-seeded Seattle in the AL Division Series.
With Detroit’s loss, the Guardians clinched the Central regardless of the outcome of their game against Texas on Sunday. Their rally to overtake the Tigers from a 15.5-game deficit is the largest comeback to win a division in MLB history.
The Red Sox (89-73) will travel to New York for the Wild Card round if Toronto locks up the AL East later Sunday.
The Tigers rested four regulars and used three pitchers who may not appear on the postseason roster, prioritizing rest over pursuing a higher seed at all costs.
Masataka Yoshida opened the scoring with a solo homer off Tigers starter Chris Paddack in the first inning.
Javier Báez answered with a three-run homer in the fourth against Red Sox starter José De León, who was making his first MLB appearance since 2023. De León recovered and worked into the seventh inning, striking out eight.
De Leon weathered Baez’s blast and pitched into the seventh inning, striking out eight, to earn the win.
De León had gone 0-9 with a 6.93 ERA in Triple-A this season.
Boston nearly added on in the fifth after drawing three consecutive walks (two from Paddack, one from reliever Paul Sewald), but Sewald escaped with a popout and a strikeout. He later gave way to Tanner Rainey, who finished with two scoreless innings.
The Tigers dropped five of six against Cleveland in the final 12 games of the season, losing all three at Comerica Park and winning just once in three games at Progressive Field earlier this week.
This story will be updated.
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