CLEVELAND (Interstat) — C.J. Kayfus was hit by a pitch from Robert Garcia with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning, scoring Petey Halpin to clinch a playoff berth for the Cleveland Guardians with a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night at Progressive Field.

Cleveland (88-75) is guaranteed at least an American League wild card and remains tied with Detroit atop the AL Central going into the final day of the regular season. The Guardians own the head-to-head tiebreaker, so a victory Sunday over Texas or a Tigers loss at Boston would give Cleveland its second consecutive division title.

The Rangers (81-80) were eliminated from postseason contention with the loss.

The game was a tense, back-and-forth pitchers’ duel for much of the night after a first-inning offensive outburst from both clubs. Texas struck first when Michael Helman led off the game with a double and later scored on Josh Jung’s two-out double to left field.

Cleveland answered immediately in the bottom half of the inning. After two quick outs, José Ramírez kept the inning alive with a single. Johnathan Rodríguez then connected on a two-run home run to right-center field, his second of the year, to give the Guardians a 2-1 lead.

Texas evened the score in the fourth inning on a solo home run to left-center by Adolis García, his 19th of the season.

From there, the game became a battle of the bullpens. Rangers starter Jacob Latz delivered a solid outing, allowing two runs on five hits over 5 1/3 innings, striking out six. He was matched by Guardians starter Joey Cantillo, who was even more effective, surrendering two runs on just three hits while striking out eight across 5 2/3 innings.

Both teams’ relievers kept the opposition off the board until the dramatic ninth. Jacob Webb and Shawn Armstrong provided 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief for Texas, while Hunter Gaddis, Erik Sabrowski and Cade Smith combined for 2 1/3 shutout frames for Cleveland.

The Rangers threatened in the top of the eighth, putting runners on first and second with one out. After a strikeout, Josh Jung hit a grounder that forced the lead runner at second, but Dylan Moore aggressively tried to score from third on the play. He was thrown out at the plate on a relay from second baseman Brayan Rocchio to catcher Austin Hedges, ending the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Robert Garcia took over for Texas and quickly recorded two outs. Rodríguez then worked a walk, and pinch-runner Petey Halpin advanced to third on a single by Kyle Manzardo. Garcia intentionally walked Gabriel Arias to load the bases before hitting Kayfus with a 1-1 pitch to force in the winning run.

Smith earned the win for Cleveland, improving to 8-5. Garcia took the loss for Texas, falling to 4-8.

The announced attendance was 36,000. The time of game was 2 hours, 41 minutes. The teams conclude their regular seasons Sunday afternoon.