How the Guardians turned the AL Central race into a one-team sprint
On the first day of spring training, Terry Francona called for a meeting with Jose Ramirez. That conversation between a manager and his star third baseman, way back in March, would set the tone for the surprising success of the youngest team in baseball — a Cleveland Guardians club that is on the verge of winning the American League Central.
Francona asked the ultra-talented Ramirez to simply play hard and with passion throughout the upcoming season because the Guardians weren’t exactly constructed to homer their way to the postseason.
“I told him, ‘This is how we have to play, everyone follows your lead,'” Francona recalled while sitting in the visitor’s dugout at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago earlier this week. “And I said, ‘If you don’t do it, I can’t ask a bunch of young guys to do it.'”
Ramirez was already known by his teammates to play ‘with his hair on fire’ and they have followed suit, specializing in a brand of baseball built around contact, running the bases and playing defense that is atypical in 2022.
The results have been near historic for a roster of players whose average age is just 26 years old. The Guardians are on track to become the youngest team in the wild-card era to not only make the postseason but also to win a division.
“I don’t know if you can put an age on being competitive,” Francona said.
And even before the team proved anything this season, Cleveland’s brass knew one thing about its squad going into 2022: It was going to be full of opportunity for a group of talented young players.
“We made some deliberate choices, even going back to the offseason, to give some of these young players opportunities to go out and contribute,” president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said. “To their credit, a lot of them have stepped forward and made a meaningful impact.”
But as Francona says, no one has a ‘crystal ball’ and it came together faster than anyone could have expected. Except maybe the Guardians’ star player himself.
“Those guys are very talented,” Ramirez said through the team interpreter. “They won a lot in the minors so they know how to win. I’m not surprised by their performance this year.”
Second baseman Andres Gimenez, shortstop Amed Rosario and left fielder Steven Kwan are three of those players who have become major contributors at a young age.
The two infielders came to Cleveland together in a blockbuster trade for Francisco Lindor, while Kwan was a little-known fifth-round pick in 2018. Batting leadoff, Kwan has set the table for a lineup that ranks 29th in home runs but has also struck out fewer times than any team in the majors.
“It’s refreshing to see that kind of baseball,” Kwan said. “It starts with Tito [Francona]. He felt if we had a chance, we had to play the game the right way. We’ve been taking that to heart.”
Kwan called Francona the “GOAT” for his managing style. One of the 63-year-old veteran manager’s best traits, according to those who know him best, is his ability to adapt a team to maximize its strengths while minimizing its weaknesses.
The young Guardians have learned winning baseball while dealing with the grind of a long season. It’s not an easy task and Francona has prodded when the moment has called for it. Kwan recalled a time after a win over Minnesota.
“He called me into his office, which he normally doesn’t do,” Kwan said. “And he pulls up a video and it’s a runner on first and I hit a single to right. The runner goes first to third and the right fielder sails the ball and I’m standing on first.
“He asks me why I didn’t take second base? I told him I hadn’t had a hit in while and I got to first and I was happy to be there. He was like ‘No kid, that’s not what we’re about. If we’re going to do this we’re going to do it the right way.’
“That stayed with me.”
Mixed in with those teachable moments, Cleveland’s clubhouse has been filled with lively celebrations fueled by a handful of dramatic victories, including several huge come-from-behind wins and extra-inning affairs. Perhaps none defined Cleveland’s season better than an early May thriller when the Guardians used a six-run ninth to pull even with the White Sox 8-8 before a three-run 11th sealed the deal. An emotional Josh Naylor hit home runs in both innings and it proved to the youth in Cleveland that they could go toe-to-toe with the reigning division winner.
Those kinds of victories began to pile up, including a 15-inning win last Saturday over Minnesota and another 11-inning one on Tuesday in Chicago. In fact, the Guardians beat up their division rivals during the entire season, combining to go 24-13 against their closest competitors and 12-4 in extra innings overall.
“Everyone is saying we’re not supposed to be doing this,” starter Shane Bieber said. “And maybe that was the story coming in early. But not now. It’s a different brand of baseball, and we’re enjoying playing it, and we’re doing it really well.”
Bieber smiled and nodded his head when Ramirez’s name came up. Clubhouse conversations often lead back to the five-tool player.
“What I find so special and invaluable about him is the way he plays the game,” Bieber said. “It’s hard to put into words. For our superstar to play the way he does, with that infectious energy, and putting his body on the line and doing it every day, with the intent to win, he really sets the tone.”
Ramirez is a first-to-third machine, yet another way he epitomizes the Guardians’ unique brand of baseball. In their just completed series against the White Sox, Cleveland basically ran them out of contention for the division title.
“It might be a little frustrating for our opponents and when you have so many young guys watching him [Ramirez] hustle like that, they think, ‘Why can’t I do that?'” Bieber said.
They can and they have. Not surprisingly, the Guardians lead the league in going from first to third on a single. It’s just one trait which has them poised for an October run. Cleveland has five players with 15 or more stolen bases, the most in baseball and the most for the franchise since 1919.
“They are young but they don’t back down from challenges,” Francona said. “All the things that we’ve tried to live by, they try to do it.”
Shaw believes the foundation was set years ago while Cleveland was going through its last window of contention. It included a World Series appearance in 2016. Several current players were in the minors or entering the organization at the time — and now are on the verge of getting their first chance to play in the postseason.
“Tito has been at the helm the entire run,” Shaw said. “We were winning and everyone saw how it’s done. Now it’s happening again.”
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
After their Game 5 victory, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brady Skjei noted the key difference between his team and the New York Islanders, the team it eliminated Tuesday night.
“Those lucky bounces went our way,” he said after the Hurricanes’ 6-3 win in Raleigh.
The Hurricanes’ Jack Drury and Stefan Noesen scored eight seconds apart in the third period, the fastest two goals in a playoff game in franchise history. That broke their previous record of nine seconds between goals, which was set in the third period of Game 2 against the Islanders.
Drury’s goal came on a deflected puck that the Islanders couldn’t clear from their zone. Noesen scored eight seconds later on a bounce off the side boards that sailed directly to the Islanders’ net.
“It sucks that we’re done playing. It’s just a tough way to lose a game like that,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “We were grinding back. Stayed in the fight all night. We believed we were going to win this hockey game. And then two bounces like that. … It’s tough to swallow.”
The five-game series was a tough, competitive matchup between the second and third seeds in the Metro Division. But after the Islanders won Game 4 in double-overtime to avoid elimination, the Hurricanes came out strong back at home to try to finish them off.
The Hurricanes built a 2-0 lead in the first 3:13 of the game on goals by Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov, whose power-play tally deflected off the stick of Islanders defenseman Robert Bortuzzo.
Mike Reilly‘s power-play goal just 41 seconds after Svechnikov’s tally made it 2-1, but Carolina increased its lead again on a Evgeny Kuznetsov penalty shot goal that the Hurricanes earned when Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov covered the puck in the crease with his glove. Acquired at the trade deadline from the Capitals, Kuznetsov used his trademark slow-skating approach — clocking in at 4 mph when he shot the puck — to outlast goalie Semyon Varlamov.
“The closer he gets to the net, the more comfortable we feel,” Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis said. “We know how nasty he is. He’s done it to us a few times. To see it work for us in a moment like that is absolutely massive.”
But the Islanders rallied in the second period. Brock Nelson scored at 3:47 when his shot deflected off the stick of Carolina defender Jalen Chatfield. They tied the game with 22 seconds left in the period as Casey Cizikas scored his first of the playoffs on a play that saw goalie Frederik Andersen lose his balance and fall near his right goalpost.
“We knew we let them crawl back into it in the second. You never want to do that, especially against a team like that. But we have so many good veterans that kept us calm. We didn’t get flustered,” said Jarvis, who would add an empty netter before the buzzer.
Then disaster struck for the Islanders in an eight-second span. Drury scored at 4:36 on a broken play in the offensive zone. Noesen scored eight seconds later on a terrible bounce for New York. Off the faceoff, defenseman Skjei fired the puck into the offensive zone. Varlamov went behind the net, anticipating the puck would reach him. Instead, it ricocheted off the side boards and slid toward the crease, where an alert Noesen tucked it home.
“The first one was just a bouncing puck that settled down for their guy on the weak side. The second goal, it’s just a s—ty bounce. Not a whole lot you can do,” Islanders winger Kyle Palmieri said. “It stings to get put down by two like that. But we battled back from down two earlier in the game. We knew we had our backs against the wall and we battles our asses off to try and find a way to try and win it.”
Lee said he’s proud of the fight the Islanders showed this season.
“At no point in this season or in this series did anyone take their foot off the gas and stop believing what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s a tight series. We didn’t get what we needed. Didn’t get that extra bounce. They got two tonight.”
The Hurricanes advance to face the New York Rangers in the second round. Coach Rod Brind’Amour said his team will have to improve its game after dispatching the Islanders.
“The Rangers are the best team in the league, right? We know what they’re all about: just immense talent, coached really well, good goaltending. What don’t they have?” he said. “We’re going to have to play better if we expect to win.”
A little more good puck luck wouldn’t hurt, either.
“It’s the playoffs. It’s one play here or there that makes the difference in the game,” Brind’Amour said. “Tonight we were the fortunate ones to get that bounce.”
RALEIGH, N.C. — This time, the Carolina Hurricanes didn’t miss their chance to close out the New York Islanders on home ice.
Jack Drury scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and Stefan Noesen cleaned up a fluky puck bounce off the boards for another one 8 seconds later as the Hurricanes beat the Islanders 6-3 on Tuesday night, clinching their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series in five games.
The Hurricanes missed a chance to sweep the Islanders in a double-overtime loss over the weekend, then twice blew two-goal leads and entered the final 20 minutes in a 3-all tie.
“They just kept coming,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We had to play really well to win this series.”
And that earned the Hurricanes a date with the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers in the second round.
Drury scored his first career postseason goal by controlling a dribbling puck that bounced by Jean-Gabriel Pageau then zipping it past Semyon Varlamov to his blocker side at 4:36 of the third. Then, after a faceoff win, the Hurricanes dumped the puck ahead toward the corner. But as Varlamov went behind the net to play the puck, it took an unexpected bounce and caromed straight into the left post, then popped forward into the crease.
Noesen charged in to bury it as Varlamov tried desperately to get back to the netfront, pushing Carolina to a 5-3 lead at 4:44.
That was ultimately enough to help the Hurricanes finally push past the determined Islanders, becoming the first team to win at least one playoff series in six straight postseasons since Detroit did it from 1995 to 2000.
“They play the right way, they play hard, but we got the job done,” said Drury, who centered the third line in this one after starting this series as a fourth-line winger. “I think we stayed resilient, too, and it was a good bounce-back in the third.”
Carolina jumped to a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven series before missing out on a chance to clinch in Saturday’s double-overtime road loss. That set up a familiar scenario from last year, when the Islanders won Game 5 here to extend that first-round series before falling in six games.
This time, Carolina closed it out even after a tense vibe entering those final 20 minutes. By the end, though, Seth Jarvis had added an empty-net clincher at the 18:21 mark to let Hurricanes fans stay in a celebratory roar to close this one out.
“We knew we — I don’t want to say, let off the gas — but we let them kind of crawl back into it in the second. … We have so many good veterans,” Jarvis said. “They kept us calm, we never really got flustered. They made sure we knew what was at stake and just came out in the third and executed.”
Noesen’s bizarre goal captured some of the wild action, which included New York’s Casey Cizikas scoring in the final seconds of the second on an unguarded net. Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen stumbled as he scrambled to his right after a stop and fell untouched out of the crease.
Carolina scored twice and rang the post in the opening 3½ minutes and twice led by two goals while coach Patrick Roy said his team “got dominated” in an opening period that included being outshot 21-4. But the Islanders climbed all the way back to tie it at 3 on Cizikas’ score to enter the final period.
“I really thought that was the turning point in the game,” Roy said. “And then a couple of bad bounces … And we had our chances.”
Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov scored in that opening blitz from Carolina, while Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on a penalty shot — a wait-wait-wait move as he skated in slowly before snapping it past Varlamov when he went for the pokecheck — for the 3-1 lead in the first.
Mike Reilly and Brock Nelson also scored for the Islanders, who won eight of their past nine games to clinch a playoff bid in the waning days of the regular season. That came after a January coaching change with the firing of Lane Lambert to hire Roy.
Carolina entered the playoffs as the favorite to win the Stanley Cup, but the Islanders gave the Hurricanes fits the entire way. That included outplaying Carolina for much of the Game 1 loss, then blowing a 3-0 lead by giving up the tying and go-ahead goals 9 seconds apart in the final three minutes of Game 2.
Ultimately, another improbably quick burst helped finish off the Islanders.
“I’m not saying we should have won the series,” Roy said. “I’m saying we could go home right now and play Game No. 6 easily. Instead, it’s over. So it feels empty in the way that I thought we did a lot better than what we got in return.”
Carolina defenseman Tony DeAngelo, pressed into duty due to a lower-body injury to Brett Pesce from Game 2, exited late in this one with an upper-body injury after an uncalled slash. Brind’Amour said DeAngelo was having X-rays but had no other update.
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