In the 265 seasons of Major League Baseball played in Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio’s pair of professional baseball teams have both qualified for the postseason a grand total of three times.
Needless to say, one of those three occasions was not this past season, when the Guardians and Reds combined to go 158-166 (.488), with Cleveland finishing fourth in a dreary American League Central while Cincinnati placed third in the equally mediocre National League Central.
As for 2024, oddsmakers at ESPN BET Ohio give both teams equally long odds of winning their respective leagues, with even longer odds of the Buckeye State seeing its first World Series championship since 1990.
With the Bengals and Browns both making the playoffs a real possibility this year, BetOhio.com took a look at the times it’s happened in MLB.
Years Guardians, Reds Both Made Playoffs
- 2020: Guardians lost in AL Wild Card (2-0); Reds lost NL Wild Card (2-0)
- 2013: Guardians lost in AL Wild Card (1-0); Reds lost NL Wild Card (1-0)
- 1995: Guardians lost in World Series (4-2); Reds lost NLCS (4-0)
Ohio sports betting apps list the Reds at +5000 to win the World Series, ranking in a tie with Miami and Milwaukee for 13th in the 30-team league. The Guardians come in at +6000, in a tie with Detroit for 16th overall.
Guardians, Reds Look to Add to Rare History
The odds of the Guardians and Reds both qualifying for the playoffs in the same season are roughly the same as hitting a hole-in-one in golf, which speaks to the state’s struggle in fielding two competitive baseball teams in a given season.
In the three seasons in which the Guardians and Reds both made the MLB postseason (1995, 2013 and 2020), neither went on to win it all, with the Guardians coming the closest when they made it to the World Series in 1995, only to fall to the Marlins in six games. In the six combined MLB seasons when Cleveland and Cincinnati made the postseason, those teams went on to lose in the Wild Card round four times.
This year, Ohio sports betting sites list Cincinnati at +1800 capture its first NL pennant since 1990, while Cleveland comes in at +3800 to do the same in the AL for the first time since 1995.
