Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Youth serves Guardians
Rookie’s blast ends scoreless tie in 15th, ousts Rays
CLEVELAND — The Guardians have won with comebacks and walk-offs for months, turning an unexpected season more special by the day.
Cleveland, the majors’ youngest team, wasn’t supposed to be this good this fast.
Rookie Oscar Gonzalez broke up the longest scoreless postseason game in history with a leadoff home run in the 15th inning, giving the Guardians a 1-0 win over Tampa Bay in Game 2 and a sweep of an American League wild-card series.
Gonzalez drove a 1-and-0 cutter — the 432nd pitch in the nearly five-hour game — off Corey Kluber (0-1) over the wall in left-center to touch off a wild celebration.
“There’s no way to describe it,” said Gonzalez, who punctuated his shot with an emphatic bat flip before strutting toward first. “It was such an exciting moment that it’s hard for me to put into words.”
Now, the Guardians — who have had been fun-loving, free and fearless since opening day — start a best-of-five division series Tuesday in New York against the AL East champion Yankees.
Cleveland has defied odds in its first season after adopting the Guardians nickname. The team ran away in the AL Central by going 24-6 down the stretch, swept the more experienced Rays and now take on the Yankees with their big bats and bigger payroll ($254 million to Cleveland’s $68 million).
Gonzalez was among 17 players to make their debut for the Guardians this season, so perhaps it was fitting he advanced them.
“I don’t think by that point we cared,” manager Terry Francona said. “It could have been one of the old guys. We didn’t care. We’re not biased. I was happy that he hit it.”
Tampa Bay was bounced quickly from its fourth straight postseason appearance. The Rays finished with seven straight losses, scored one run in the series and hit .115 (9-for-78) with one extra-base hit.
“I saw guys trying to do too much,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We were looking for the threerun homer with nobody on base.
When you take that mindset against good pitchers, they can sit you down.”
Gonzalez’s shot off Kluber, who won two Cy Young Awards with Cleveland, finished a game that began at 12:08 p.m. ET and ended in twilight.
The tense, 4-hour, 57-minute game was the longest 0-0 affair in postseason history, surpassing the 2020 National League wild-card series opener between Atlanta and Cincinnati that went 13 innings. The teams combined for a postseason-record 39 strikeouts — 20 by Rays batters.
Tampa Bay had six hits and used eight pitchers. Cleveland got five hits, also used eight pitchers and squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the sixth.
Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez kept the game scoreless with spectacular defense in the 12th. Ranging right, Ramirez backhanded Manuel Margot’s bouncer near the bag before making a quick throw from foul territory across the diamond. First baseman Josh Naylor made a long stretch, scooped Ramirez’s throw and kept a toe on the bag.
Rays starter Tyler Glasnow and Guardians counterpart Triston Mckenzie set the tone for another tight, well-pitched game between the teams — the fifth straight decided by one run.
Glasnow allowed two hits in five innings before hitting his pitch limit, while Mckenzie gave up two hits and struck out eight in six innings.