Brayan Rocchio, David Fry Lift Guardians Over Tigers
Make that another series victory for the Cleveland Guardians. Their 24th win of the season came in a rubber match against their division rival Detroit Tigers. A few unexpected heroes helped the Guards in the series finale.
David Fry came up to the bat in the bottom of the ninth inning with Cleveland down a run. Up to this point, the Guardians had only managed to put together three hits in the game and got lucky taking advantage of a couple of Detroit miscues.
But all it takes is one swing of the bat to change the game and that’s exactly what Fry did going the other way and tying up the game at four.
That brought Brayan Rocchio up to the plate in the bottom of the tenth with a runner on third base. The Tigers tried playing five infielders to prevent anything from getting through the dirt, but Rocchio sent the ball right over their heads.
The rookie’s hit sealed a 5-4 victory for the Guardians and was Rocchio’s first career walk-off.
Stephen Vogt admitted after the game that Rocchio’s at-bats have been “all over the place” so far this season and there have been times where he’s tried “to do too much.” That wasn’t the case with the plate appearance.
Rocchio looked confident and controlled in the box and put a nice swing on the ball to end the game. It’s worth noting that even if the Tigers didn’t decide to stack the infield, the ball still would’ve gotten down to give Cleveland the victory.
Hopefully, this will give Rocchio a confidence boost and we see him get going a little more at the plate.
TOMMY WILD