Cleveland Guardians move on to Divisional round with walk-off homerun in FIFTEENTH inning
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See you in the Bronx! Cleveland Guardians advance to Divisional Round with Oscar Gonzalez’ walk-off homerun in FIFTEENTH inning to end Tampa Bay Rays season… while New York Yankees wait
- The Rays and Guardians batted 15 innings without scoring a run on Saturday
- But Oscar Gonzalez eventually broke the tie with a walk-off homer off Corey Kluber
- The blast sent Cleveland into the next round where they will face the Yankees
- And 99-win New York projects are going to be a tough test for the underdog Guardians
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The Cleveland Guardians won their wildcard series by heart on Saturday when Oscar Gonzalez hit a solo homerun to score the first (and final) run of the 1-0 win vs. the Tampa Bay Rays.
The extra-innings game featured only 11 combined hits from both sides in 15 innings, with 16 pitchers in the game.
And it looked like the Rays would be the team to end the game earlier in the inning, as Vidal Brujan moved to third base with only one out.
Oscar Gonzalez celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run vs. the Tampa Bay Rays
Gonzalez’s home run ended the drought between the two teams and sent the Rays packing
But Sam Hentges held out and struckout the next two batters, giving Gonzalez his walk earlier in the game.
The outfielder was responsible for two of the Guardians’ five basehits on the day, as he also reached on an infield single in the seventh inning.
Eight innings later, he would take Corey Kluber deep to win the series.
The Guardians’ other win in the best-of-three series was also a low-scoring one; they defeated the Rays 2-1 on Friday.
Cleveland now heads to New York to take on the Yankees in the division series, a matchup expected to be a tougher test than the Rays delivered.
The Yankees have won 99 games this season and finished in first place in the AL East, and have the potential AL MVP in Aaron Judge, who hit a whopping 62 home runs this year.
New York enters the series in strong form after going 20-10 in their last 30 games.
The Rays, who also play in the AL East, finished 13 games behind New York this season with a record of 86-76.