Guardians Vault: Belle slams door on Angels

March 10th, 2022

MLB.com is digging back into its massive video vault to uncover classic plays that you have loved, forgotten about or, perhaps, are discovering for the very first time. Watch these moments and many, many more on the MLB Vault YouTube page.

July 18, 1995: Belle's walk-off slam
Cleveland trailed by two runs against the California Angels in the bottom of the ninth, when Albert Belle came to the plate. In the midst of what would become a 50-homer season, there was no better situation for the slugger. Wayne Kirby singled, Omar Vizquel logged a base hit and Carlos Baerga walked to load the bases. With one out, Belle launched a pitch off Lee Smith to the picnic tables in center field, ending the game in walk-off fashion.

Oct. 5, 2007: Bug Game Magic
The image of New York hurler Joba Chamberlain standing on the mound, having cans of bug spray emptied on him to try to stop the midges from their attack is so crisp in so many Cleveland fans' brains that it feels as if it happened yesterday. Yankees starter Andy Pettitte had held Cleveland scoreless through 6 1/3 innings, preserving New York's 1-0 lead. But when he handed the ball over to Chamberlain, the bugs came out in full force. Chamberlain could hardly focus as the critters swarmed his face, and suddenly the game was tied up, 1-1. It wasn't until the 11th inning that Travis Hafner ended the Bug Game in style with a walk-off single to score Kenny Lofton, sending Jacobs Field into a frenzy and giving the club a 2-0 series lead in the ALDS.

July 8, 1997: Sandy slugs American League into win column
Sandy Alomar Jr. accomplished something no one had seen before. In front of his hometown crowd at then-Jacobs Field, the Cleveland backstop hoisted the All-Star Game MVP trophy with his son in his arms. The game was tied at 1 in the bottom of the seventh inning when Alomar launched the deciding two-run homer to left field off San Francisco's Shawn Estes. American League hurlers Randy Myers and Mariano Rivera shut down the National League bats for the final two frames to claim the victory and secure Alomar's MVP honors. He became the first player to win an All-Star Game MVP at his home ballpark.

June 27, 2008: Grady amazes with grab
Grady Sizemore brought home two Gold Glove Awards in his Major League career and this catch was a perfect representation of why one of those was earned in 2008. On a long fly ball to deep center off the bat of the Reds' Adam Dunn, it was clear that Sizemore wasn't going to have time to get planted under the ball. As he reached the warning track, he took flight, leaping to make a basket catch with his back toward the infield before colliding with the wall. It was a catch so impressive that starter CC Sabathia's mouth was slightly open in shock with his hands on his head in disbelief.

Oct. 15, 1995: Scoring on a passed ball ... from second
Every run counts in the postseason, and when Kenny Lofton realized he had a chance to give Cleveland an insurance run in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the ALCS, he took it. In front of a roaring crowd at the Kingdome, a pitch from the Mariners' Randy Johnson skipped off the glove of catcher Dan Wilson and trickled over to the backstop, giving Ruben Amaro (who was on third) plenty of time to score. Most of the time, it’d be easy to assume that the damage had been done and Wilson could toss the ball back to Johnson and their focus could turn to the next pitch. Lofton knew that was the expectation and took the opportunity to catch Seattle by surprise, charging behind Amaro to score on the passed ball all the way from second base.

Apr. 8, 1993: Taking switch-hitting to a whole new level
Hitting two home runs in one inning is an impressive and rare feat, considering it's been done just 56 times in MLB history. Carlos Baerga found a way to make his two-homer frame even more notable. In the seventh inning against the Yankees at Cleveland Stadium, batting right-handed, Baerga followed Alvaro Espinoza's leadoff single with a two-run blast off lefty Steve Howe. Cleveland proceeded to bat around that inning, forcing New York to turn to righty Steve Farr to try to limit the damage. When Baerga was sent to the plate for the second time in the frame, he stepped into the left-handed batter's box and drove a 2-0 pitch to right-center field to become the first player in MLB history to hit a homer from each side of the plate in the same inning.

Sept. 30, 1999: Manny being Manny
Manny Ramirez put together an impressive 19-year career chock full of Silver Sluggers, All-Star Game appearances and MVP finishes -- most of which came during his time in Boston. But his career got off to a hot start in Cleveland, including setting a franchise record in 1999. On Sept. 30 against Toronto, Ramirez launched a three-run homer in the sixth inning to set the team record for RBIs in a single season with 164. He knocked in one more run before the end of the year to reach a mark (165) that has yet to be reached in club history.

July 14, 2002: The ultimate cult hero
If you want to make sure your brief career that consisted of 198 games over five seasons is remembered, you need to have an iconic moment -- like hitting a walk-off grand slam against the best closer in the history of the sport. Bill Selby was up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning at Jacobs Field as Cleveland trailed by one. With Mariano Rivera on the rubber, Selby lifted a high fly ball to right field that reached the second row of the stands just inside the foul pole. Selby celebrated by throwing his right fist in the air multiple times during a lightning-fast home run trot as Rivera walked off the mound shaking his head.

June 4, 1995: Sorrento wins it for Cleveland
Cleveland entered the bottom of the ninth inning of a game against Toronto trailing by one run. With two outs and a runner on, Paul Sorrento sent a game-winning moonshot over the right-field wall that sent Jacobs Field into a frenzy. It was the second victory of what would become a seven-game winning streak and a stretch in which the team would go 11-1 as it climbed higher and higher in the division rankings.

Aug. 14, 2003: Hafner hits for cycle
Cleveland had gone two decades without seeing one of its players hit for the cycle. Then, Travis Hafner stepped to the plate in Minnesota. The slugger got the long ball out of the way first, smacking a long fly ball deep into the upper deck in right field at the Metrodome. His double somehow came on a check-swing slow chopper up the middle that barely escaped the infield before a Baltimore chop back to the mound handed him a single. The most difficult hit to collect came last, when the slugger tripled to right-center field and became the first Cleveland player to hit for the cycle since 1978.