Guardians one win away from ALDS

Guardians 2, Rays 1

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The Guardians played their kind of baseball and now find themselves one win away from playing in the ALDS against the New York Yankees. Shane Bieber was stellar in just his second career postseason start, while José Ramírez provided the kind of magic that the Guardians need if they want to make a deep run.

In almost every post-game interview, Guardians players and staff had glowing reviews for the positive energy flowing through Progressive Field yesterday. The Guardians were dealt a rough hand having to fill a stadium at noon on a Friday with barely 48 hours' notice, but they did a bang-up job of it.

Cleveland Guardians news

Tom Hamilton calls José Ramírez’s dramatic home run that gave Cleveland Guardians playoff win over Tampa Bay Rays | WKYC
Tom Hamilton’s call of Ramírez’s two-run home run in the win was just as spectacular as you would imagine.

The Guardians and Rays just played the shortest postseason game in almost a quarter century | 92.3 The Fan
Clocking in at a blistering, Rob Manfred-approved two hours and 17 minutes, the Guardians dispatched the Rays in the fastest playoff game this century. Now, of course, for a game to go that quickly it means that the Guardians offense also had to look pretty bad — and they did. Except for one guy. You know, bro.

Guardians AL Wild Card Game 1: Jose Ramirez, one of baseball’s smartest hitters, comes through | Akron Beacon Journal

“Yeah I remember the only game I ever got to catch against him was in 2017 and I remember our pitching coach was great at scouting and he said, ‘This is the first guy that I’ve ever seen that I don’t know what to throw to him, so just go be random,’” said Austin Hedges, formerly with the San Diego Padres before Cleveland acquired him via trade. “That’s pretty impressive.”

Cleveland Guardians answer another question, show they can handle the big stage | Akron Beacon Journal
No stage is too big for these Guardians. Playing in front of their first home postseason crowd since 2018, they refused to give in when they fell behind just as they had done all season long.

Around the league

• The Phillies enjoyed a comeback win over Cardinals.
• Fair to say the Mariners are happy with the Luis Castillo trade.
• Max Scherzer’s postseason debut didn’t go as planned.
• Mike Clevinger is not on the Padres postseason roster.
• FanGraphs updated their top prospects list one last time for 2022.
• Rangers are wasting no time diving into the offseason.