Rookie’s HR in 15th inning leads Guardians with only run needed
CLEVELAND — 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 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.
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 Cleveland’s surprise season turned more story book.
The youngest team in the major leagues, Cleveland opens the best-of-five Division Series on Tuesday in New York against the AL East champion New York Yankees.
Cleveland defied odds all year in its first season after adopting the Guardians nickname. The team unexpectedly won the AL Central going away.
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.”
Tampa Bay was bounced quickly from its fourth straight postseason appearance. The Rays 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.
This one had a little bit of everything, except offense.
Tampa got just six hits and used eight pitchers. Cleveland only got five hits, also used eight pitchers and squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the sixth.
Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow and Cleveland’s Triston Mckenzie set the tone for another tight, well-pitched game between the teams — the fifth straight decided by one run — with splendid starts.
Sam Hentges struck out six in three scoreless innings to get the win, one the lefthander will cherish.