South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)

Gonzalez’s HR wins it in 15th

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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 Guardians a 1-0 win over the Rays on Saturday and a two-game Wild Card Series sweep.

Gonzalez, who walks to the plate to the “SpongeBob SquarePant­s” theme song, drove a 1-0 cutter — the 432nd pitch in the nearly five-hour game — off Corey Kluber over the

19-foot wall in left-center to touch off a wild celebratio­n inside Progressiv­e Field.

Gonzalez finished his follow-through and watched where the ball had landed while taking

10 small steps toward first, still holding his bat straight down. He then flipped the bat behind him and started trotting around the bases.

As Gonzalez rounded the bases, and his teammates gathered near home plate to greet him, the sellout crowd of 34,971 fans shook the ballpark as the Guardians’ surprise season turned more story book.

The youngest team in the major leagues, the Guardians open the bestof-five Division Series on Tuesday in New York against the AL East champion Yankees.

The Guardians defied odds all year in its first season after adopting the Guardians nickname. The team unexpected­ly won the AL Central going away, swept the more experience­d Rays and now take on the Yankees with their big bats and bigger payroll.

Gonzalez was one of 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.”

The Rays were bounced quickly from its fourth straight postseason appearance. They finished the season with seven straight losses, scored one run in the series and hit .115 (9 for 78) with one extra-base hit.

Gonzalez’s shot off Kluber, who won two Cy Young Awards with Cleveland, finished a game that began at 12:08 p.m. and finished in the twilight with shadows crossing from one end of the ballpark to the other.

The tense, 4-hour, 57-minute game was the longest 0-0 affair in postseason history, surpassing the 2020 NL Wild Card Series opener between Atlanta and Cincinnati that went 13 innings. The teams combined for 39 strikeouts, two more than the previous high for a postseason game. Twenty of the strikeouts were by Rays batters.

Verlanders to start Game 1

of ALDS: Justin Verlander will start Game 1 of the American League Division Series for the Astros on Tuesday.

It was a forgone conclusion the AL Cy Young Award frontrunne­r will start that game, and manager Dusty Baker made it official Saturday.

The worked out at Minute Maid Park as they wait to play the winner of the wild-card series between the Blue Jays and Mariners.

He said they hadn’t yet set their rotation past their opener because the opponent had not been determined.

“We know it, but we don’t want to solidify it until we know,” Baker said.

 ?? DAVID DERMER/AP ?? Guardians’ Oscar Gonzalez celebrates with teammates following his walk-off home run in the 15th inning against the Rays on Saturday in Cleveland.
DAVID DERMER/AP Guardians’ Oscar Gonzalez celebrates with teammates following his walk-off home run in the 15th inning against the Rays on Saturday in Cleveland.

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