CLEVELAND -- Travis Bazzana raised his right arm into the air and shuffled around the first-base bag. The fly ball he hit landed beyond the center-field fence at Progressive Field, sending the ballpark into a frenzy and the Guardians’ second baseman into a trot every young baseball player has practiced countless times in their dreams.
Hitting a walk-off home run in the big leagues, indeed, is as good as Bazzana imagined it would be.
“100 percent. You kind of flow [or] black out,” Bazzana said. “Thoughts kind of go away. That's a good thing.”
Bazzana belted his first career walk-off home run on Saturday, to send the Guardians to a 5-3 win over the Pirates in the nightcap of a split doubleheader at Progressive Field. Cleveland earned a split after dropping the Game 1 matinee, 7-1.
With his two-run blast off Pirates righty Dennis Santana, Bazzana became the first Australian-born player to hit a walk-off home run in the Majors since at least 1900. He also became the first Cleveland rookie to pull off the feat since Bobby Bradley on July 9, 2021, against the Royals.
Bazzana’s blast also was Cleveland’s 104th walk-off home run since Progressive Field opened in 1994; that’s 12 more than any other team in that span.
“I feel good in those late moments up to bat,” Bazzana said. “It was an awesome one with it being a Saturday night, long day, a comeback win today. It was great.”
It was already shaping up to be a great week for Bazzana, who represented the Guardians at the MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia. For the 23-year-old, getting outside the normal rhythm of the season was also a nice change of pace.
In his final 15 games before the All-Star break, Bazzana went 10-for-60 with 18 strikeouts, which amounted to a .167/.246/.217 slash line.
“I obviously wasn't swinging the hottest bat and [was] trying to work through some things, just put out my best performances,” Bazzana said. “I felt like the All-Star Game was very exciting and some memories I'll cherish forever. It allowed me to kind of reset, see some things. I feel strong coming back for the second half.”
Bazzana went 1-for-4 with a triple in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader, while Cleveland mustered just six hits. He went 2-for-3 with two walks in Game 2, and his blast was part of a scintillating finish to a long day for the Guardians.
Game 2 began with a one-hour, 15-minute rain delay. After the rain cleared, the Cleveland skies became blanketed by smoke from Canadian wildfires, which impacted visibility.
In the third inning, center fielder Petey Halpin and right fielder David Fry lost sight of a 204-foot-high pop up hit by Pittsburgh’s Esmerlyn Valdez. It dropped in for an RBI double. As the Guardians were held scoreless through the seventh inning, that moment loomed large.
“We were dead for six innings, seven innings offensively,” manager Stephen Vogt said.
The Guardians put together a game-tying three-run rally in the eighth, when Steven Kwan, Brayan Rocchio, Chase DeLauter and Kahlil Watson all hit singles. Kwan has now hit safely in 17 of his past 20 games since June 23, batting .361 over that stretch.
Kwan started another rally with his double down the left-field line in the ninth, following Patrick Bailey’s leadoff single. Bailey was thrown out at home plate, on a play that went to replay review.
The review allowed Bazzana to gather himself before he stepped into the box. He took a first-pitch changeup from Santana for a ball. Santana came back with another low changeup, and Bazzana did not miss.
It wasn’t long before the ballpark’s atmosphere overtook him.
“Once the outfielder is at the wall and everyone's cheering, halfway to first base, you feel it all the way around,” Bazzana said. “During the swing and when you're celebrating, it's all just like ‘Whoa.’”
There’s a lot of attention on Bazzana, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. He is still making his way in the league, like any rookie, and it could be easy to forget he has played just 67 games in the Majors.
Nights like Saturday are a reminder of what he has accomplished so far and how much still lies ahead.
“You want to check all these boxes of first hit, first home run, first walk-off, first All-Star Game,” Vogt said. “And he's checked a lot of them already in just three months. He is very mature. He's a good player. He had a tough first game, and what’d he do? He responded with an unbelievable second game today.
“This kid doesn't get down on himself. It's a lot of fun.”