Rocchio HR sparks Guardians, forces decisive G3

CLEVELAND -- How far can a team go by repeatedly dancing away from a season-ending precipice? The Cleveland Guardians are determined to find out.

The Guardians, boosted by a five-run eighth-inning outburst that began with an unlikely home run from Brayan Rocchio, beat the Detroit Tigers 6-1 on Wednesday to force a decisive Game 3 in the AL Wild Card Series.

In many ways, it was fitting that Rocchio ignited the season-saving rally because the trajectory of his rags-to-riches season has been in lockstep with the team around him. And, yes, the blast was unlikely, but unlikely is where the Guardians seem to be most comfortable.

"We always say we try to always play without pressure," Rocchio said through the team's interpreter. "That's our type of ball. We just play and we realize we're going to play until the last out. Even if we're down by 10, we'll know we'll continue to try to play that type of ball."

For seven innings, the Guardians and Tigers engaged in the kind of low-scoring, close game that frustrates hitters and thrills pitchers alike. For Cleveland, the frustration was an inability to do much of anything after George Valera's first-inning home run. Through seven frames, Cleveland had just two hits and five baserunners overall.

For Detroit, the frustration was very different. The Tigers had 15 baserunners for the game. And yet one Cleveland pitcher after another managed to wriggle out of trouble, usually with an inning-ending strikeout.

"It was a tough day," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. "Obviously, they made the most of their opportunities and we left 15 guys on. I think that paints the picture that was today."

The score was tied 1-1 entering the Cleveland half of the eighth. With one out, Rocchio stepped to the dish against Detroit fireballer Troy Melton.

"Just velo and the plus stuff," Hinch said when asked why he went with Melton in that situation. "We needed to extend the game."

Melton may have been the least of Rocchio's problems. The afternoon shadows make things miserable for the hitters, with Guardians manager Stephen Vogt noting that in those conditions, batters simply can't pick up the spin on a pitch, making everything look more or less like a fastball.

Rocchio got an actual fastball from Melton, a four-seamer in the heart of the plate that registered at 99.9 miles per hour, per Statcast. The sheer velocity of the pitch was the first thing that made Rocchio's homer so unlikely. According to ESPN Research, only Oscar Mercado, in a 2020 regular-season game, had gone deep on pitch that fast for Cleveland over the last decade.

Rocchio connected and sent a shot towards right field. But even so, a home run still seemed very unlikely thanks to a howling wind that had been blowing in from that direction and played havoc with flyballs all afternoon.

"Funny enough, when the game started, I was thinking with this wind, we have to put the ball on the ground, try to get ground balls," Rocchio said. "When I get that mindset to get the ball on the ground is when I get better and better results."

Indeed, the ball settled into the right-field seats, giving Cleveland the lead and sparking an offensive surge capped by Bo Naylor's three-run blast later in the inning.

But forget the conditions -- the shadows, the wind, the pitcher -- and just think how unlikely it was that Rocchio was there, taking a high-leverage at-bat in a postseason elimination game.

Rocchio struggled so badly early this season that he spent six weeks at Triple-A despite helping the Guardians to the 2024 AL Central title and becoming a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop.