Here are 18 Walk-Off Thoughts on the Indians’ 3-2 win against the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night.
1. There’s a good chance you’ll never this again—and of course, LeBron was there.
2. Down 2-1 with one out in the bottom of the ninth against the very good closer (Roberto Osuna) of a first-place team, the it looked like the Indians would go quietly into the night. Two swings later, it was bedlam.
3. First, Jose Ramirez drilled a solo home run to right field to tie it 2-2. Ramirez has been one of the best clutch hitters in baseball this season, bar none. Yes, it’s not a sustainable stat, and maybe scoff at RISP numbers. But so far this year, he’s been among the best, and that home run was clutch enough, to at least send it into extra innings.
4. Then, one of the craziest endings you’ll ever see to a baseball game. Tyler Naquin hit a high shot to deep right field that hit off the wall. It got away from right fielder Michael Saunders, trickling away. Center fielder Melvin Upton fielded it as Naquin neared third but fell down. Naquin turned to home and slid head-first ahead of the throw for a walk-off inside-the-park home run.
5. Naquin immediately sprung up and threw up a traditional Metal, “Rock-on” symbol with his hand, index and pinkie fingers extended. You know the one. It’ll be plastered around the clubhouse and park for a long time, and the Indians’ Twitter account (which does a fantastic job with everything, by the way) will surely use it.
6. Said Naquin, “Always. Just rockin' out. That was a pretty cool moment, so I'm gonna get into it.”
7. What was he thinking when he got the sign to turn for home? “Keep running. Don't fall. I almost fell down there for a second. Just keep on running. Just keep on running. A hard slide. Beat the ball.”
8. Many Indians players and coaches thought it was gone off the bat, and had already stepped onto the warning track in front of the dugout. They had to retreat back, and then when Naquin turned for home, many of them sprinted to the plate with him.
9. Naquin at least had the idea of turning for home in his head, even as he rounded first, saying, “I was just thinking after I hit it, I took a couple steps out of the box and just pictured it kicking off the wall. I said, 'I have a chance to score if it kicks far enough.' And sure enough, it did.”
10. Not including a World Series winner or anything of that nature, it’s a pretty wild time to be a third base coach. Once Upton fell, Mike Sarbaugh could wave him home.
11. Said Sarbaugh, “Initially, I thought it was out. And then when it hit the wall, I saw that Upton was pretty far away from it backing up. And when he got to it, I thought we would have to stop him. But as soon as he fell, I thought we had a good chance of scoring. Just good job on Tyler’s part just making sure he kept running. That was a great way to win the game, that’s for sure. … When he’s coming around third, he’s looking at me. He did slow down a little bit, so to get him back going, he did a great job of keeping it. That was a lot of fun. Especially to end up on the good side.”
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12. Naquin also won Thursday night’s game with a walk-off sacrifice fly. Both games began with the Indians’ offense sputtering and them being down at least two runs for most of the night. Both ended with comebacks. It’s a testament to the resiliency of this team.
13. Indians manager Terry Francona didn’t need these games to know that, though. Said Francona, “I think I already know. Just because some nights when you don’t win, it doesn’t mean—I think the guys play until it’s time to go home. We’ve done that all year. It’s one of our qualities that I admire about our guys. I say it a lot of times when we come in here after a tough loss, we can win some of those games. Tonight, we did. They’re hard games to win, but every once in a while, you might win one of those.”
14. It also means Naquin has received two nights’ worth of the pummeling that follows a game-winning hit. Said Naquin, “No, man. I love 'em. Keep those coming. I'd actually like to win by five or 10 so we don't have to do that.”
15. The Indians have shown a rare confidence and ability to never be out of a game. It’s something that can’t be quantified or valued, but it’s been evident for most of the season and especially so lately.
16. The Indians never think they’re out of it. Said Trevor Bauer, “Mostly it’s just a confidence thing, though. Everybody believes we’re going to win. There wasn’t a second in that game where I’d feel like anybody thought we were going to lose, even though we were down the whole game. Confidence is a big thing. … There was never a second that I thought we were going to lose the game. That was a playoff atmosphere against a playoff-caliber team. That’s fun. Those games are fun. That’s what you play baseball for, games like that.”
17. The last walk-off inside-the-park home run in baseball was on May 25, 2013, when the San Francisco Giants’ Angel Pagan did it to beat the Colorado Rockies. The last time an Indians player did it was Braggo Roth on Aug. 13, 1916, to beat the St. Louis Browns, nearly 100 years to the day. And the Indians’ on Friday night included a game-tying home run just seconds before.
18. Don’t ever say baseball is boring. That was wild.