CLEVELAND -- After briefly watching the fly ball carry off his bat and deep into the night sky at Progressive Field, Travis Bazzana turned to his left and began to backpedal while gazing into the Guardians’ third-base dugout. There was no doubt where that ball was headed.
By the time it landed, the Guardians were re-energized. And you had to think Bazzana was, too.
Bazzana’s eighth-inning game-tying two-run home run off Jacob Waguespack was the appetizer to his walk-off RBI single off Kenley Jansen that sent the Guardians to a 4-3 win over the Tigers in 10 innings on Friday, securing a doubleheader sweep for Cleveland. That clutch blast came a few hours after Brayan Rocchio belted a walk-off solo home run in Game 1 of the twin bill. It marked the first time the Guardians swept a doubleheader with two walk-offs since Aug. 19, 1984, against the Brewers.
The Guardians improved to 72-70 to maintain their hold on the third American League Wild Card spot. They remain three games behind the AL Central-leading White Sox (74-67), who beat the Twins, 4-1, on Friday.
Bazzana has gone through the natural ups and downs every player experiences in their rookie big league season this year, though he has run into more of the latter recently. The 24-year-old slashed .228/.300/.266 over 22 games in August; his .566 OPS was a season low for any single month.
Bazzana went 0-for-5 through his first three games of September entering Friday. He has had a few rough moments defensively recently. He committed a fielding error in the fifth inning of Thursday’s 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays. During Tuesday’s 11-0 loss to Toronto, he was late getting to second base on a second-inning ground ball that played into shortstop Angel Genao making a throwing error.
“Travis wants to help us win,” manager Stephen Vogt said Thursday. “Travis is a winner. When you're going through your first season, and you want to perform perfectly and you want to be great for your teammates, and you go through a stretch where it's been a little bit tough, you're going to wear it.
“... He came here with expectations, both on himself and from the outside. And he's been great. But again, when you want to help your team win, you're going to show it. You're going to wear it a little bit. We know Travis is a really good player, and he's going to bounce out of it.”
Bazzana went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored in the Guardians’ 7-6 comeback win in Game 1. He did not start Game 2, but he entered in the sixth inning as a pinch-hitter for Chase DeLauter, who exited with a right wrist sprain.
The Guardians trailed, 3-1, in the eighth. Bazzana got a 2-0 four-seam fastball from Waguespack and hit it a Statcast-projected 389 feet over the center-field wall.
In the 10th, Bazzana knocked a Jansen cutter up the middle and into center field to drive in Rocchio, kick-starting a chaotic Guardians celebration in center field.