The Irony Of The Guardians American League Wild Card Win Over The Rays

All of Cleveland's runs came from home runs against the Rays after they hit some of the fewest in the regular season.

All season a lot of people, myself included, talked about how the Guardians were ready for the postseason because they didn't rely on the long ball to score their runs. They stole bases, made contact with the ball, got on base, and didn't strike out. 

Well, that wasn't the case against the Rays. Still, they were able to beat Tampa in the American League Wild Card Series with all playing the Cleveland brand of baseball.

The Guardians hit the second-fewest home run in the regular season with 127. Only Detroit hit fewer with 110. So if you would have told me the only scoring the Guardians would do against the Rays was via the long ball, I probably wouldn't have believed you.

That's exactly what happened.

All of the scoring in game one came from a Jose Ramirez two-run blast that scored himself and Amed Rosario. There was a little drama to see if Rosario did in fact touch second, but thankfully he did.

Then there was game two. In a 15-inning game, you would expect there to be some sort of scoring but not for the Guardians and Rays. However, the first run of the game came from Oscar Gonzalez in the fifteenth inning. 

Just like Jose Ramirez in game one, it was a home run. 

I'm not complaining, a win is a win and the Guardians were able to pull it off. But they're going to have to get back to their normal brand of baseball if they want to beat the Yankees.

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