The American League Divisional Series is now set, with the Cleveland Guardians and Seattle Mariners advancing on Saturday. The Guardians won a historic game, Game 2, dramatically, while the Mariners overcame a huge deficit.
The Cleveland Guardians and Seattle Mariners will continue their journies to the 2022 World Series after earning berths in American League Division Series on Saturday. Cleveland defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0 in 15 innings on rookie Oscar Gonzalez’s walk-off home run to earn a sweep in their Wild Card series in the first year of Major League Baseball’s new playoff format.
Meanwhile, Seattle overcame a seven-run deficit to earn a thrilling 10-9 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays to complete their series sweep.
The Guardians and Mariners will hit the road for their respective best-of-five divisional series matchups, which will begin on Tuesday. Cleveland will face the New York Yankees, and Seattle will face the Houston Astros.
Longest Scoreless Postseason Game In Playoff History
Gonzalez’s game-winning blast not only ended the series but also the longest scoreless postseason game in MLB history. The tense 4-hour-and-57-minute contest surpassed the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds 1-0 13-inning 2020 NLWCS Game 1 affair that lasted 4 hours and 37 minutes.
Gonzalez, who walks to the plate to the theme song of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” drove a 1-0 cutter – the 432nd pitch of the game – 410 feet over the left-center wall off Corey Kluber. The 24-year-old right fielder joins Tony Pena in Cleveland playoff lore as the only players to hit a walk-off home run. Pena did it against the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALDS on Oct. 3, 1995.
Gonzalez, 2-for-5 at the dish, was the only player with multiple hits in the afternoon as the game saw just 11 hits – 10 of which were singles. The Guardians had five hits and drew three walks, while the Rays totaled six hits and five walks. The teams set a playoff record by striking out 39 times, with the Rays’ batters going down on strikes 20 times.
The Game also saw the teams combine to use 15 pitchers. Kluber (0-1), pitching out of the bullpen for the first time since 2013, was the Rays’ seventh pitcher in relief of starter Tyler Glasnow and had the first five batters he faced before Gonzalez’s heroics. Meanwhile, Sam Hentges (1-0) picked up the victory in his postseason debut, allowed three hits, and struck out six in three innings.
Cleveland defeated Tampa Bay 2-1 on Friday behind Jose Ramirez’s two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth and the right-hand of ace Shane Bieber, who allowed three hits in seven and two-thirds innings. The Guardians are back in the ALDS for the first time in four years (2018) when the Houston Astros swept them.
Seattle Mariners Advance With Biggest Come-From-Behind Victory On The Road
Seattle showed incredible resiliency on Saturday afternoon as the Mariners trailed Toronto 8-1 after five innings. But the Mariners slowly chipped away as they tallied four runs in the sixth and four in the eighth to knot the game up at 8. Then with two outs in the ninth veteran second baseman Todd Frazier ripped the first pitch he saw from Blue Jays’ closer Jordan Romano to deep right field to score Cal Raleigh, who had hit his own double off Romano two batters before Frazier.
Rookie George Kirby (SV 1), pitching in relief for the first time, pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth to seal the biggest comeback road playoff win. The seven runs are baseball’s largest deficit a team has overcome to clinch a postseason series. Andres Munoz (1-0) picked up the victory.
Seattle outhit Toronto 13-12 though the Blue Jays finished with more home runs (2-1) and fewer strikeouts (14-8). Frazier (3-for-5) and Raleigh (3-for-4) combined for six of the Mariners’ hits, along with five runs. Danny Jensen led the Jays’ offensive attack with three hits of his own though it was Teoscar Hernandez, 2-for-4 with 4 RBI, who did most of the damage with a pair of home runs.
Seattle is in the playoffs for the first time since 2001. The Mariners defeated the Blue Jays 4-0 in Game 1. They are making their fifth-ever ALDS appearance, where they are 3-1.
