CLEVELAND, Ohio — Since the first inning, the bats had fallen silent. The Guardians’ offense turned every at-bat into a test of patience and frustration.
The crowd at Progressive Field simmered, restless, sensing the weight of a playoff berth dangling just out of reach on Saturday.
And then came the top of the eighth inning. A sequence that threatened disaster, only to flip into the kind of moment that sticks to a postseason run like glue.
Cade Smith, summoned into a tie game with one out, threw his first pitch. Routine. Josh Jung rolled it over to shortstop Gabriel Arias, who smoothly started what should have been an inning-ending double play. Arias to Brayan Rocchio for one — clean. The crowd surged with anticipation. Then chaos.
Rocchio’s relay banged out of Jhonkensy Noel’s glove and clanked to the dirt. Instead of jogging off the field with the score still knotted, the Guardians were staring at runners on the corners, two outs, and the ever-dangerous Adolis García striding to the plate.
This was the nightmare. García had already launched a 433-foot reminder of his power earlier in the night. Now the Guardians were a pitch away from watching their season tilt toward catastrophe.
But baseball doesn’t always give you what you fear. Sometimes, it hands you the kind of reprieve that sparks belief.
As Smith worked to García, Jung broke for second. It looked like a free pass. Only it wasn’t. Austin Hedges, the veteran catcher whose glove has always meant more than his bat, came up firing.
“I was pumped that I got the green light to be able to throw it all,” Hedges said. “A lot of times we might pump fake and just trust Cade [Smith] to go strike out the next guy, which he probably would have. But to throw the ball accurately. To make a clean, a clean play. … to do it in the biggest moments, to get a big out, to give us the opportunity to go win the game.
“I was pretty fired up.”
Hedges’ throw snapped into Rocchio’s mitt, catching Jung between stations. And then, instinct met nerve.
With Moore inching off third, Rocchio began to work Jung back to first but also had a split-second decision to make. Chase Jung back fully, or cut down the runner bolting for home? The 2024 Gold Glove finalist didn’t hesitate. He gunned it to the plate. Hedges planted the hard tag across Moore’s slide, and the crowd detonated.
“It’s funny, we worked on that play all year, all spring training,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “We’ve worked on it all year and it wasn’t until Game 161 that we absolutely needed it and our guys executed. It’s unbelievable. That’s how talented these guys are and what a great play.”
Disaster had been dodged. Energy poured back into the Guardians’ dugout. What could have been the unraveling of a season instead became a jolt.
It allowed the Guardians an opportunity to take the game into their hands rather than letting it slip away.
“For me, [that play] helped me be more relaxed because some days you don’t have hits, but you can help the team on the defensive side, [and] that’s me,” Rocchio said.
“After that play, we said, like, ‘We can win this game.’”
Although it took until the bottom of the ninth for Cleveland to awaken from its slumber, the Guardians were able to string together a hit and two walks with two outs leading to CJ Kayfus’ walk-off hit by pitch that clinched the Guardians a playoff spot with a 3-2 win.
The energy created from their eighth inning defensive stop was the deciding factor that brought them back to life. A reminder that for this team, sometimes it’s the gloves, not the bats, that carry them through the fire.
In a game where Cleveland’s offense had gone silent, it was the defense that roared the loudest, turning a dropped ball into a heartbeat play that kept October within reach.
“I’ve never been more proud in my life,” Hedges said. “As we were making this run, I tried not to get ahead of myself and, you know, expect us to get into the playoffs because it’s so hard. But I knew in my heart that if we pulled this off and found a way into October, I don’t think I could imagine being any prouder.”
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