A walk-off, a year-saver and an omen: Cleveland Guardians' wild five hours end in joy

CLEVELAND – Guardians catcher Austin Hedges stood shirtless in the middle of the Progressive Field infield grass, marveling at how much hair he has on his chest as jubilant players and their families milled about.

Bullpen coach Brian Sweeney admitted he pulled his hamstring running in to join the immediate postgame scrum.

After his walk-off home run off former Cleveland ace Corey Kluber in the 15th inning gave the Guardians a 1-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays and a sweep of their American League Wild Card Series, right fielder Oscar Gonzalez brought a bottle of champagne to the interview room. Translator Agustin Rivero did the same, both dragged away from the celebration in the plastic-draped clubhouse.

First base coach Sandy Alomar paused to think about the madness of the four-hour and 57-minute game, the first in major league history to go scoreless through 13 innings.

Third baseman Jose Ramirez’s remarkable play on a ground ball by the Rays’ Manuel Margot and the stunning stretch of Josh Naylor at first to record the last out in the Rays’ 12th. The strange 4-3-6 double play by Andres Gimenez, Naylor and Amed Rosario to end the 14th. And even Gonzalez breaking his belt in the seventh inning trying to steal second on a foul ball by Gimenez.

“I think like the hole broke when I slid head-first,” Gonzalez said.

Alomar whipped off his belt and gave it to Gonzalez, among the 17 rookies who made their major league debuts for the Guardians this season.

In that piece of leather, Alomar found a coincidence he believes bodes well as the Guardians advance to the American League Division Series that opens Tuesday against the New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium.

“I gave him my belt and the belt’s size 15 and we win the game in the 15th inning. That is the most bizarre thing,” Alomar said. “An omen, right? Now he says he doesn’t want to give it back.

“Going deep, that’s the best part. He can have it as long as he keeps doing this.”

Records fell like empty champagne bottles. The two teams combined to total 39 strikeouts, the most in a postseason game. Gonzalez’s game-ending home run was the second-latest in the playoffs, behind only Chris Burke’s 18th-inning heroics for the Houston Astros in 2005. It was the longest game in terms of innings in Cleveland and Tampa Bay histories.

There was a seventh- and a 14th-inning stretch, two renditions of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The sellout crowd of 34,971 waited patiently to party despite the seventh-inning cutoff on alcohol.

After five hours of sheer pressure, elevated after the Guardians failed to score with the bases loaded and none out in the sixth, feelings were all over the place afterward.

“Cold, tired and pretty excited,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said, drenched from the festivities.

“You're trying to have fun … but it's agony at the same time. I wouldn't change it for the world. I was proud of the effort. [Winning pitcher Sam] Hentges going out there for parts of three innings. Guys dug deep and made pitches, made plays. It ended up being enough. It was tough, but it was enough.”

Rays manager Kevin Cash, a former Cleveland bullpen coach under Francona, wasn’t aware of the history that was being made, but he considered it.

“I was sitting there thinking about it once we got to the 10th, the 11th, the 12th. It was crossing my mind, like how many postseason games have you seen like this before?” Cash said. Francona visited close friend Cash in the visitors' clubhouse afterward.

“That was a whirlwind. That was crazy,” Hedges said. “You don’t see things like that happen too often with two really good clubs. Obviously, both clubs with outstanding pitching, but both clubs with outstanding hitting, too. To hold them to one run in two games like that, in that many innings, that’s hats off to our pitchers, our starters, our bullpen, Carl [Willis] and the pitching staff. It’s something really special we’re doing.”

Guardians pitching coach Willis said he’d been through something similar. He was a member of the 1991 Minnesota Twins who beat the Atlanta Braves in 10 innings in Game 7 of the World Series.

“Not as long a game, but obviously the stakes were high, as they were today,” Willis said, cigar in hand. “Unless we do it again, nothing will ever equal that. But this was really special.”

Willis wasn’t aware it was the longest scoreless postseason game.

“At the end of the day, all we wanted to do was win. Set records, I couldn't care less. I just want to win,” he said.

Asked about the wild moments like the Ramirez-to-Naylor putout that Francona said “might be a year-saving play,” Willis said, “It was unbelievable. It’s Major League Baseball, you never know what you might see.”

Unlike Alomar, Willis wasn’t sure if nearly five hours of exhausting, exhilarating craziness was an omen.

“I hope so,” Willis said.

But as the postgame madness wound down on the field, Hedges was enjoying the celebration and thinking about hoisting the most important trophy in baseball.

“If not wearing a shirt means winning the World Series and continuing to have champagne parties, I’ll never wear a shirt again,” Hedges said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Guardians savor crazy plays, unusual moments in wild card win