CLEVELAND โ Brayan Rocchio hit five home runs this season. His sixth of the year blew the lid off Progressive Field on Wednesday, as the Cleveland Guardians infielderโs eighth-inning homer put Cleveland ahead in a 6-1 win in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series. The Rocchio rocket on a 99.9 mph fastball from Tigers reliever Troy Melton forced a decisive Game 3, absolving the Guardians of their quiet offensive start to this series and punishing the Tigersโ inability to finish the job. Detroit went 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position in Game 2, leaving them at 2 for 23 in the series. The Guardians didnโt put a runner in scoring position until the rally that followed Rocchioโs deciding homer.
Happy Rocctober to you and yours
It has become a local meme of sorts. Whether you refer to it as โRocctoberโ or refer to the man as โPlayoff Rocchio,โ this is the time of year Rocchio morphs from an unimposing, singles-hitting second baseman into a spotlight-hogging slugger. When backup catcher/team leader Austin Hedges awarded him the clubโs championship belt after he clobbered a walk-off three-run homer off the foul pole on Sunday to cap the regular season, Hedges announced โPlayoff Rocchioโ as the โchampion of the world.โ Rocchio said heโs not sure why he transforms into a daunting figure at the plate when the weather turns crisp, but he supplied critical hits during Clevelandโs playoff run in 2024 (.333 average, .906 OPS), and when his solo shot in the eighth on Wednesday disappeared into the right-field seats, a Guardians team that had struggled to muster anything offensively could collectively exhale. The go-ahead blast paved the way for a five-run inning โ like when you canโt get an ice cube to unstick from the bottom of the cup and then, without warning, the entire cluster of ice speeds toward you and smacks you in the face โ that Bo Naylor capped with a three-run homer.
One of the Tigersโ biggest strengths turned into a critical mistake
The Tigers run the bases with breakneck aggression. They are not a fast team, and they do not steal. But when men are on and the ball is in play, third-base Joey Cora is a human green light. Itโs part of the Tigersโ philosophy and a big part of their DNA. No team in the past 50 years has taken extra bases at the rate Detroit did this season. But in the fourth inning, Zach McKinstry got thrown out going first-to-third on a ball to rookie Chase DeLauter. It was a close play at third but overturned upon review. It was not just the out that hurt. The Tigers scored one run on the Javier Bรกez single and appeared to have scored another. After review, McKinstry was tagged out before Dillon Dingler touched the plate. So the inning was over, and the game was tied instead of becoming a 2-1 Tigers lead.
