CLEVELAND — I witnessed the most “Cleveland” way to make Major League Baseball history over the weekend, and it was a roller coaster of emotions to say the least.
A walk-off hit-by-pitch from a pinch hitter was not on my bingo card, but it definitely should have been.
If you haven’t seen the moment yet somehow, don’t worry, I recorded it for you.
But how did we get here, and how insane really is this comeback of a regular season?
Let’s dive into Saturday’s game and take a short walk back in time.
Saturday shenanigans
When I drove up to Cleveland, my hometown, on Saturday morning to see some old friends from high school, and God-willing watch the Guardians win, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Questions like, “Can we come up big in the clutch and actually pull this off?” or “Are we going to fall flat on our face and have this run come crashing down?” ran rampant in my mind.
Safe to say the hour-and-a-half drive to my buddy’s house was a little anxiety-ridden.
While blaring “Rooster” by Alice in Chains probably a little north of 15 times in a row helped, the pit in my stomach wasn’t going anywhere.
How could I not be feeling this way?
Yes, we’d been playing well, and the fact that we were going to even have a shot at clinching a playoff berth, let alone the division title was incredible.
Yet, it’s like the saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
So, walking up to the gates in right field two hours before the first pitch (they had $2 Coors Light before the game, how could I not?), it felt like a playoff game.
My friends and I were glued to our ESPN apps in line, as we followed the Detroit Tigers-Boston Red Sox clash.
The outcome of that game directly affected whether or not we’d be watching #GuardsBall in October or not.
Once the Tigers barely slipped by Boston 2-1, the stage was fully set for this potentially historic moment.
Three reasons, in my opinion, that made this run historic.
One, Luis Ortiz.
Two, Emmanuel Clase.
Three, the obvious pick, being 15.5 games back of first place in the division on July 8.
Cleveland against the world
This isn’t a hot take or anything, but you have to be a special kind of stupid to be a pitcher and gamble on the pitches you throw.
With video replay, social media and general technology advancements in sports betting, it is not hard to catch you.
Well, in an unsurprising Cleveland sports demonstration of bad luck, the Guardians not only had one pitcher do that, but two in Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase.
I’m not going to go too much further into this, as it happened a while ago now; however, it does matter in terms of Saturday’s game.
Joey Cantillo was the starting pitcher for Saturday’s playoff-clinching game.
Who did Cantillo replace in the rotation once he was called up from the bullpen? Luis Ortiz.
Hunter Gaddis came in as a reliever but had seen some action as a closer earlier in the season. Cade Smith served as the closer on Saturday.
Whose mound appearances did they take over? Emmanuel Clase’s.
You arguably could blame Ortiz and Clase for the third reason I mentioned, the 15.5 games out of first in July.
But, I guess I’ll be nice and cut them a break.
The -6 run differential, or the stat that measures how many runs you score versus how many runs you allow, is more than likely to blame there.
Funny enough, this year’s Guardians team is the 8th team ever to make the playoffs with a negative run differential.
Who cares about being the 8th team in MLB history to do something, how about the first?
Thanks to a Tigers’ loss but more importantly one last Guardians win on Sunday, the American League Central division runs through Cleveland again.
That’s right, the Guardians are the first team to ever win their division title after being 15.5 games out in July, making their nearly three-month run magical.
It was all capped off by a beanball fired at the side of a pinch hitter I had never heard of, CJ Kayfus.
It doesn’t get more Cleveland than that.
There’s another baseball team in Ohio besides the Guardians?
Well, dear reader, we’ve reached the end of the story.
I can hear you saying, “Why didn’t he just put Cleveland baseball in the headline and not Ohio baseball?”
Because, I’ve moved to north central Ohio, and apparently, a lot of people cheer for the Reds down here.
So, congratulations to the Cincinnati Reds on snagging the third wild-card playoff spot in the National League and their first playoff appearance since 2020.
The +35 run differential Reds are cool, but the -6 run differential and back-to-back American League Central winning Guardians are somehow cooler.
The Guardians will host the Tigers for their first playoff game on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 1 p.m.
The Los Angeles Dodgers will host the Reds for their first playoff game on Sept. 30 as well, at 9 p.m.
Both games will be on ESPN.
