TAMPA, Fla. — The Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays have established a major league record for the longest scoreless postseason game ever played.
With a leadoff home run off Corey Kluber in the 15th inning, rookie Oscar Gonzalez broke up the longest scoreless postseason game in big league history, giving the Cleveland Guardians a 1-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays and a two-game Wild Card Series sweep.
They went into the 15th inning tying at 0-0.
The previous mark was achieved two years ago in the NL Wild Card Series opener against Cincinnati when Atlanta won 1-0 on Freddie Freeman's walk-off single in the 13th inning.
Tampa had four hits in 14 innings and employed eight pitchers.
Kluber, making his first relief appearance in over nine years. Cleveland had four hits while employing eight pitchers.
Tampa got four hits in 14 innings and employed eight pitchers, including Corey Kluber, who made his first bullpen appearance in more than nine years.
Cleveland had four hits and utilized eight pitchers. It was the team's longest postseason game ever.
There were 36 strikeouts in 14 innings.
Gonzalez entered the game with "SpongeBob SquarePants" playing in the background and crushed a 1-0 cutter from Kluber, the 432nd pitch in the nearly five-hour game, over the 19-foot wall in left-center to spark a raucous celebration inside Progressive Field.
Cleveland AL Central champion, the youngest team in the major leagues, opens the best-of-five Division Series on Tuesday at the AL East champ New York Yankees.
Cleveland defied the odds all year in its first season.
The team unexpectedly won the AL Central going away, then swept the more experienced Rays.
Tampa Bay was bounced quickly from its fourth straight postseason appearance.
The Rays finished the season with seven straight losses and managed just one run and nine hits in the series.
