CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Exactly one week ago, Oscar Gonzalez extended the Guardians season with a mammoth walk-off home run into the bleachers, sending Progressive Field into a frenzy and Cleveland to the American League Division Series.
SpongeBob SquarePants! SpongeBob SquarePants!
Saturday night, Gonzalez stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 9th inning with the bases loaded and two outs.
SpongeBob SquarePants! SpongeBob SquarePants!
Rinse, repeat.
This time, Gonzalez ripped a two-run single to center field to complete ANOTHER late-inning comeback for the hometown ball club so affectionately referred to as the Guardiac Kids.
“I feel like it’s Deja Vu all over again. It’s just what we do,” said catcher Austin Hedges. “We’ve said it all year, you’ve got to get 27 outs. There’s a reason there’s nine innings. There’s 27 outs and we only needed 26 of them today.”
Gonzalez liner scored Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario to secure a 6-5 victory over the New York. Yankees late Saturday night at a sold-out Progressive Field. By the time Rosario crossed the plate, every seat in the ballpark was empty because all 36,483 in attendance were on their feet.
“He can take some swings early in the count, and you're like ‘uh-oh,’” said manager Terry Francona. “When he gets to two strikes, he gets the barrel of the bat to the ball a lot of times and did it again tonight.”
The Yankees were 167-0 in postseason history when leading by multiple runs entering the 9th inning, according to ESPN Stats and Information. Not anymore. For the 13th time this season after trailing in the 7th inning or later, the Guardians came back to win.
“I don’t know if I have words. I think elation is probably the only one. It’s just pure joy,” said starting pitcher Triston McKenzie.
Making his second-career postseason start, McKenzie was relatively sharp most of the night. He struck out five batters through 5.0 IP but allowed four earned runs on a pair of two-run home runs. McKenzie surrendered 25 home runs this year and was victimized again Saturday night, allowing a pair of two-run shots to Aaron Judge in the 3rd inning and Oswaldo Cabrera in the 5th inning.
“I thought the ball was coming out of his hand really good.
With this lineup, when you make a mistake, they can hit it a long way,” Francona said. “The three home runs were all mistakes, and it's more glaring because they know what to do with them when they seem to go a long way.”
All five Yankee runs came via the longball, as Harrison Bader added a solo shot in the 7th inning.
The Guardians clawed themselves to an early 2-0 lead after two innings, pushing Yankees starter Luis Severino deep into counts and dragging 55 pitches out of him over the first two innings. Had Cleveland not stranded four baserunners through the first three innings, they could’ve really asserted some leverage over Judge and the Yanks.
“This is how we win game. We don’t necessarily go out and beat teams 10-1 every game,” Hedges said. “We’ve got to go grind, we’ve got to pitch, we’ve got to play defense. This was just a perfect example of how we play baseball.”
Judge had been rendered irrelevant in the first two games of the series, floundering around to the tune of 8 strikeouts and one meager walk entering Game 3 on Saturday night.
He belted a mammoth two-run blast to dead center over the 19-foot wall that tied the game in the 3rd inning. With a runner at third and one out, you could almost feel what everyone was collectively thinking: walk him.
“The long ball is always a threat with them. But trying to keep them in the park is one of the biggest things,” McKenzie said.
Judge’s homer seemed to galvanize the Yankees. After needing 55 pitches to get through the first two innings, Severino turned in a 13-pitch third and an 11-pitch fourth. He retired 13 straight before a pair of singles pushed him out of the game in the 6th inning with a 4-2 lead.
Will Brennan, another rookie who’s played way over his head this year notched an RBI single to make it 4-3 after Severino left.
“He threw me a changeup to start the at-bat. And then he went fastball and I kind of check-swung and I knew he’d go back to it,” Brennan said.
The Guardians three-run rally in the 9th began innocently enough. Myles Straw blooped a single to left and then advanced to second base when the throw went to third base. Steven Kwan singled, his third hit of the night followed by another base-hit by Rosario to draw within one.
Jose Ramirez reached on an infield single to load the bases.
Then?
“That’s SpongeBob, that’s our dude,” Hedges said.
Gonzalez’ two-run single gives him three go-ahead hits in the 9th inning or later this season. It’s the most in that category in MLB history, tying him with the likes of Pete Rose, J.D. Drew and David Ortiz.
“He’s the right-handed Big Papi,” Hedges said.
Cleveland is now one-game away from another champaign soaked clubhouse celebration with Game 4 set for Sunday night at Progressive field.
What will it take to close it out?
“We’ve got to pitch, play defense and get timely hitting, just like today,” Hedges said.
Rinse, repeat.