Rays Lose Historic Pitcher's Duel 1-0 on Oscar Gonzalez's Home Run in 15th Inning
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CLEVELAND, Ohio — It's blatantly obvious that the longest scoreless game in postseason history would be incredibly stressful to be a part of. The fact that it ended the Tampa Bay Rays' season when Oscar Gonzalez hit a home run in the bottom of the 15th inning to give the Cleveland Guardians a 1-0 win was a gut-wrenching nail in the coffin, for sure.
For all the stressful moments in this five-hour marathon, no one was more involved in heart-thumping moments than Tampa Bay reliever Jason Adam. He got out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the sixth inning with a strikeout and a double play, but that was nothing, he said, compared to watching the rest of the game.
"That game, it was certainly an experience,'' Adam said. "But it was even more stressful after I wasn't playing. We love everybody in this clubhouse and we want to see them all succeed. Just watching them was a high-stress situation.''
Stressful, and historical, too.
The previous record for a scoreless playoff game was 12 innings, and these two teams blew right past that with some incredible pitching from the first inning through the last. And it seemed only fitting that a Tampa Bay team that's struggled to hit all year would be befallen by a worst-ever display at the plate.
Rays hitters struck out 20 times and had just six hits all day. This came on the heels of a Game 1 loss where they only had one run and three hits in Friday's 2-1 defeat. And even when they had a few chances, they couldn't ever get a hit when they needed it.
''Yeah, it's frustrating, no doubt. We just could not get anything going offensively, a bunch of strikeouts,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "They pitched really, really well. I'd like to think that we could have had some better at-bats. But this two-game series, you saw about as good a pitching as you're going to see.
"On the other side, I'll speak for our club, we're capable of more, we just couldn't get going. I saw guys trying to do too much, I think. There was just too much, you know, we were looking for the three-run homer with nobody on base. When you take that mindset against good pitchers, they can kind of sit you down.''
They did that, over and over. Every single starter struck out at least once, and center fielder Jose Siri, who scored the only run of the series with a solo homer of Friday, struck out a whopping five times in six at-bats. Even guys who came off the bench joined the K-club, with Taylor Walls and Francisco Mejia both striking out twice.
The Rays had two men on in the sixth, 12th and 15th innings, but could never push a run across. They also got a runner to third in the 10th inning, but left him stranded. The best chance was in the 15th, when they had runners on first and third with just one out after singles by Vidal Brujan and Manuel Margot, but Mejia and Siri both struck out to end the threat.
It was that kind of day.
"I think some of those things you just can't control,'' Siri said of the missed chances, especially late. "We had a hard time trying to get hits today. Yeah, it was tough having that missed opportunity, but that's something you just can't control in this game.
"It's not just us, but they also struggled to score in those 15 innings. It's the longest game I ever played but that's just the way the game is.''
The loss took a lot of luster off an incredible pitching performance by the Rays, too. The only runs allowed on Friday came on a two-run homer from Cleveland's star third baseman Jose Ramirez, and he went 0-for-6 on Saturday. That's how dominant Rays pitching was from start to finish.
Tyler Glasnow got the start, his third in the big-leagues this year after coming back from Tommy John surgery, and he was electric. He pitched five innings and allowed only two hits with five strikeouts, and he was never in trouble. Cash called his outing ''awesome.''
It was all hands on deck afterward, for 10 more innings, as it turned out. And it started with Pete Fairbanks' hand going bad.
Fairbanks, who had pitched 22 outings in a row without allowing a run to end the season, replaced Glasnow. He said he warmed up just fine, but when he came out to the mound to throw, he fired his first warm-up off the backstop.
He walked his first batter, and then the second. He called out Cash and the trainers then because he couldn't feel his index finger. He said it went numb on him, something that's never happened before. Cash had to take him out, replacing him with Adam.
"I didn't have that feeling in the bullpen and went out and threw the first fastball to the backstop. It just got progressively worse from there,'' Fairbanks said. "I couldn't feel the majority of these two fingers (index and middle), and I asked them to come out. I felt like I was throwing with my wrist, and you can't do that, obviously.
"I don't think it's anything serious. It's a circulation thing, if anything. It's not ideal. I don't have any explanation for it. My hand was chalk white coming off the field, and that's not a good sign. It's not a good feeling (to have to come out). It sucks.''
Adam came in and promptly plunked Amed Rosario with a lost slider to load the bases with none out, but then he struck out Ramirez and coaxed a double play out of Josh Naylor to end the biggest threat of the game.
Adam also pitched the seventh and got out of that with a double play. Drew Rasmussen, making his first relief appearance of the season, got five straight outs, but in the bottom of the ninth, Cash took him out in favor of left-hander Garrett Cleavinger. He faced four batters — and struck out all four through the 10th inning.
"At that point, it was still relatively a matchup-based game. I think we took (Rasmussen) out for (the left-handed hitting) Naylor and brought in Cleavinger, still playing matchup at that point. We did that there till the end. I felt good with all the matchups. How can you not? We didn't give up any runs.''
Shawn Armstrong started the 11th and got four outs with three strikeouts, and then Brooks Raley came in and got three outs.
Corey Kluber, who hadn't made a relief appearance since 2013, came in with one out in the 13th inning after Raley had walked Luke Maile. He got the final two outs of the 13th on a strikeout and a fly out, and then pitched a perfect 14th with three straight ground balls.
But in the 15th, Gonzalez smacked his second pitch, a cutter over the plate, deep into the left-field seats for the game winner. Just like that, it was over.
Corey Kluber gave up the game-winning home run in the 15th inning. (USA TODAY Sports)
"I didn't quite execute that pitch like I would have wanted to and, unfortunately, he did what he was supposed to with it,'' said Kluber, who was a two-time Cy Young Award winner during his nine years in Cleveland. "First and foremost, they pitched great both games and you tip your hat to their staff. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it done.
"I felt fine when I was out there, and getting ready wasn't a problem at all. I just made one mistake.''
It was the second year in a row that the Rays' season ended with a walkoff loss in the playoffs. Last year, it was at Boston. The Rays, who were swept in a playoff series for the first time in team history, have now lost five postseason games in a row.
It was a tough way to go out for sure, especially with it being Kluber on the mound, in a stadium where he's had so many great memories. His year with the Rays was good, and he was a great mentor to young starters in the Tampa Bay rotation.
But it ended with one mistake in a game with near-perfect pitching on both sides.
"Yeah, that stinks,'' Cash said. "We're asking a guy (to come on in relief) that's put together a tremendous season for us. He came back and proved to baseball that he's healthy. He did it at a ballpark that he's had some great experiences in. He pitched really, really well, but he just left a pitch that Gonzalez got.''
Tyler Glasnow
Randy Arozarena
Guardians celebration
Oscar Gonzalez
Corey Kluber
Guardians celebrate
Manuel Margot
Manuel Margot
Shawn Armstrong
Drew Rasmussen
Manuel Margot out stealing
Pete Fairbanks
Wander Franco
Jason Adam
Amed Rosario
Yandy Diaz
Triston McKenzie
