The Cincinnati Reds (wildcard) and the Cleveland Guardians (Indians, AL Central Champion) are both in the playoffs.

Pause.

It’s a big deal.

This is only the fourth time that the regular season ended that we had a shot at an I-71 World Series.

Side note: When we were robbed of a postseason in 1994, the Indians and Reds were two of the best teams in baseball. Oh, and Tony Gwynn might have hit .400.

Whatever.

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Anyway, this is the fourth time both Ohio teams are in the postseason at the same time. In 995, the Reds lost in the NLCS in a 4-0 sweep to the Braves while the Tribe made it to the World Series before falling to Atlanta. In 2013, both Ohio teams lost in the wildcard round, same happened in the 2020 pandemic season when they both lost in the first round.

Let’s start with Cleveland. The fact that they even made the playoffs, let alone won the division, is astonishing. On Sept. 1, the Detroit Tigers had a 10 1/2 game lead on Cleveland. The Tigers were -20,000 to win the division … meaning you would have to bet $20,000 to win $100.

So what happened: Guards get red hot, Tigers fold like a Haggar suit (no offense, Haggar). Keep in mind, Cleveland was a seller at the deadline, shipping Shane Bieber to Toronto. By the way, Bieber is a key part of the AL East champion Blue Jays, going 4-2 with a 3.57 ERA and a WHIP of 1.02. The Guards are also without starting pitcher Luis Ortiz and closer Emmanuel Clase as part of a gambling investigation by MLB.

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And now they are hosting the Tigers in the wildcard round. Going to be one hell of a series.

Meanwhile, the Reds are in Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers. The strength of this Reds squad is starting pitching, and that is what trumps everything in the postseason. Cincinnati boasts a top-3 of Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott and Nick Lodolo, the latter two being lefties. The Dodgers’ rotation is slightly better, but it’s damn close.

The Reds will need elite pitching and clutch hitting to pull this off.

In the end, it will likely be the Guards and Dodgers advancing … but right now, my dream of an I-71 series is alive and well.