CLEVELAND -- It all comes down to Game 162.

No, the Guardians don’t have a playoff berth on the line. They don’t even have the division title or the first-round bye on the line. Heck, their 4-3 loss to the Astros on Saturday at Progressive Field eliminated any chance of securing the No. 1 seed, so it would seem as though nothing is on the line for Sunday’s final game.

And yet, there’s so much on the line for José Ramírez.

With everything else clinched, most star players would take a day to get some rest, but Ramírez has been adamant that he remains in the lineup as he chases the coveted 40-40 season. He entered Saturday already having eclipsed 40 steals and just two homers away from achieving the feat. But in the first inning, he launched a ball a Statcast-projected 390 feet off of Astros starter Justin Verlander as his 39th homer of the year. Now, he has one game left to get No. 40.

“He’s just such an incredible hitter,” Verlander said of Ramírez. “You’ve just got to tip your cap on that one.”

Only six players have enjoyed a 40-40 season in MLB history: Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco. Maybe on Sunday, this club will become a party of seven.

“It’s just been an unbelievable year to watch,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “I think what Josey’s done, it’s so much fun.”

When a player is clear that he’s chasing something, there can be concern that he could develop bad habits. If he’s swinging for the fences, maybe he’ll get away from the mechanics that have gotten him to this point. It’s happened to players before and it surely will happen again. But the Guardians have been confident that it wouldn’t happen to Ramírez. They’ve seen this determination in the past. When he sets his mind to something, he finds ways to do it without sacrificing anything that’s made him such an elite player.

“When guys chase numbers, they struggle,” Vogt said. “When you are yourself and you go out and play every night to be you, your numbers will come. This whole season for Josey has been an example of that.”

As if that wasn’t enough to monitor in Sunday’s season finale, Ramírez decided to make it even more interesting by smacking a double in the right-center-field gap to bring his double total to 39 on the season. A 40-40-40 season is almost unheard of, considering Soriano (2006) is the only player in MLB history to boast this on his résumé.

There are so many eyes on the statistics, but if we zoom out for a second, the bigger picture tells an even better story. Like we’ve already said, this is a man on a mission to achieve a special feat. And yet, he’s still the best hitter in this lineup.

Ramírez picked up two hits on Saturday to reach 1,500 for his career. He launched the go-ahead, first-inning homer to respond to the Astros’ early lead and pick up a struggling Ben Lively. He added a sacrifice fly in the third inning to cut the Guardians’ deficit to one. Then, in the eighth, Ramírez had a brief scare when he fouled a ball off his shin that prompted him to step away from the plate, bending over in pain.

After a few minutes with the Cleveland training staff, he stepped back into the box and won an 11-pitch at-bat against Astros reliever Ryan Pressly with the double in the gap. The Guardians know that their superstar can come alive at any moment. There’s no one they’d rather want at the plate in a high-leverage situation. But when Ramírez is starting to lock in like this just before October baseball gets underway, that can only be a positive sign.

“You watch his at-bats tonight, he’s on every pitch,” Vogt said. “There’s no fooling him right now.”

Maybe the Guardians won’t gain much from Game 162, collectively, but there’s still a chance for a show before the regular season comes to a close. There’s no doubt that Ramírez will be back in the lineup to chase the 40-40 (or even the 40-40-40) season. It all comes down to Sunday to see if his dream can become reality.

“It’s just so enjoyable to see him doing it,” Vogt said. “It’ll be fun to see what happens tomorrow.”