Thought Kwan's first play was good? Gold Glover comes back with another gem

CLEVELAND -- There weren’t many moments in Game 5 where it felt like the momentum could swing in the Guardians’ favor, but they all involved Steven Kwan.

Kwan was a one-man highlight reel in the field, and while that’s nothing new for Guardians fans, the rest of the baseball world is getting to see it now on the postseason stage.

One of those turning points could have come in the fourth inning, when Kwan made a spectacular throw home from left field to cut down Taylor Walls trying to score from second on a Jonathan Aranda single. The Rays were already up three runs on the Guardians at that point and pushing to run away with Game 5, but Kwan’s throw seemed to settle the game down.

It was an aggressive send by the Rays, but Kwan nailed the throw, one-hopping it to catcher Patrick Bailey on the correct side of home plate, setting his catcher up perfectly for the tag.

“Kwan, the play that he made getting rid of that ball -- off the bat, I thought there was no chance of a play,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash.

Kwan, the perfectionist, thought he owed his team a laser in that spot after a run scored on a single hit to him in the second inning, which he thought he could have done more with.

“I had an opportunity to make up for a less-than-good throw the first time,” Kwan said. “I was glad to save some runs there, but I left some meat on the bone, I felt like, with that [first] one.”

It wasn’t enough, as the Guardians went on to lose, 3-1, and are now on the brink of elimination headed back to Tropicana Field for Game 6 on Monday, but if they’re going to pull off another incredible comeback like they did in the ALDS, Kwan will have to be right in the middle of it.

“That game could have looked a lot different without our defense tonight,” said manager Stephen Vogt. “Again, we've had a couple games early in this series where the defense wasn't outstanding, which is unlike ourselves. Pitching and defense is how we're built, and that kept us in this game tonight.”

Kwan’s home is left field, where he’s won the Gold Glove Award in each of the first four seasons of his career, but he’s a finalist in center field this season after spending much of his season shifted over. He’s one of the best defensive outfielders on the planet, and while José Ramírez is the face of the franchise in Cleveland, Kwan’s defense in 2026 captures exactly why he’s so crucial to this club’s identity.

What an incredible snapshot of that we saw, too, when Kwan slid from left field to center in the ninth inning after Petey Halpin exited the game for a pinch-hitter. Victor Mesa Jr. ripped a deep fly ball to right-center field which could have easily scored a run, but Kwan made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Mesa of extra bases.

If they’d thrown him in right field for an inning, he probably would have completed the hat trick with a diving catch, too.

“It's a great credit to Steven,” said president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti. “First and foremost, his team-first approach, to be able to come to us and say, ‘I'll play wherever it's best for the team.’ He put in a lot of work to demonstrate he's not only a Gold Glove-caliber left fielder, but now a center fielder. He's made a massive impact on our team, and that's helped us build lineups in different ways as we've gone through the season. So a huge credit to Steven and all the work that he's put in to get to this point. It's very well deserved.”

Ramírez had the Guardians’ other web gem in Game 5, making a barehanded scoop on a perfect bunt by Chandler Simpson in the eighth inning and firing to first in time to get the speedster. Any of these defensive highlights could have been the play of the game on any other night, but the Guardians just weren’t able to do enough offensively against Drew Rasmussen to make them shine.

They’ll need all of this and more -- especially from Kwan and Ramírez -- with the Guardians fighting for their postseason lives on Monday night in Game 6.