Guardians sweep Rays on Gonzalez’s 15th-inning HR
Rookie Oscar Gonzalez broke up the longest scoreless postseason game in major league history with a leadoff home run in the 15th inning, giving the Cleveland Guardians a 1-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday and a twogame Wild Card Series sweep.
Gonzalez, who walks to the plate to the “SpongeBob SquarePants” theme song, drove a 1-0 cutter from Corey Kluber, the 432nd pitch in the nearly five-hour game, over the 19-foot wall in left-center to touch off a wild celebration inside Progressive Field.
As Gonzalez rounded the bases, and his teammates gathered near home plate, the sellout crowd of 34,971 fans shook the ballpark as Cleveland’s surprise season turned more storybook.
AL Central champion Cleveland, the youngest team in the major leagues, opens the bestof-five Division Series on Tuesday at the AL East champ New York Yankees.
Cleveland defied odds all year in its first season after abandoning the Indians nickname in favor of the Guardians. The team unexpectedly won the AL Central going away, then swept the more experienced Rays.
Tampa Bay was bounced quickly from its fourth straight postseason appearance. The Rays finished the season with seven straight losses and managed just one run and nine hits in the series.
The game was the longest in Cleveland postseason history.
LATE FRIDAY NATIONAL LEAGUE
Padres 7, Mets 1: Josh
A Bell and Manny Machado smashed two of visiting San Diego’s four home runs off New York’s Max Scherzer. Yu Darvish shut down the Mets once again, and San Diego also got long balls from leadoff batter Jurickson Profar and slumping Trent Grisham against an ineffective Scherzer — booed off the mound in the fifth inning at Citi Field. The three-time Cy Young Award winner exited his first postseason start for New York down 7-0.
Phillies 6, Cardinals
A 3: Philadelphia scored six times in the ninth inning off the stingy St. Louis bullpen, highlighted by a bases-loaded single by Jean Segura, and the visiting Phillies beat the NL Central champion Cardinals in the opening game of their National League wild-card series. The Cardinals were poised to put away another close game after Juan Yepez connected for the first go-ahead pinch-hit homer in franchise history with two outs in the seventh.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Mariners 4, Blue Jays
A 0: Luis Castillo and Andrés Muñoz combined on a seven-hitter, and visiting Seattle won its first postseason game since 2001.
Guardians 2, Rays 1:
A José Ramírez connected for a two-run homer for host Cleveland, and Shane Bieber dominated Tampa Bay for 7 2⁄3 innings.
VERLANDER TO START AL DIVISION SERIES OPENER FOR ASTROS
Justin Verlander will start Game 1 of the American League Division Series for the Houston Astros. It was a foregone conclusion that the AL Cy Young Award frontrunner would start that game, but manager Dusty Baker made it official Saturday.
The Astros worked out Saturday at Minute Maid Park with an extended break as they wait to play the winner of the wild-card series between Toronto and Seattle. He said they hadn’t yet set their rotation past their playoff opener because they don’t yet know the opponent.