Brayan Rocchio's walk-off homer embodies Guardians' 2nd-half rally to AL Central title

The Cleveland Indians weren’t content to let the AL Central race finish in a tie and win it on a tiebreaker.

It was fitting in many ways that Brayan Rocchio hit the walk-off homer that put an exclamation point on the Cleveland Guardians’ historic run to an AL Central title.

Even though Cleveland had secured its 13th division crown in the eighth inning when the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, the Guardians weren’t content to let the AL Central race finish in a tie and win it on a tiebreaker.

Cleveland rallied from two runs down to force extra innings. Texas pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez put the Rangers up 8-5 with a three-run homer in the 10th, but the Guardians came back again with Bo Naylor’s RBI double in the bottom half and then Rocchio’s three-run drive down the right-field line that hit the foul pole and gave them a 9-8 victory.

“It’s incredible. I think not only because of the homer and the walk off, but knowing that we were going to win the division the right way. We knew we had at that point, but winning the game was really important for us,” Rocchio said through an interpreter in the celebratory Cleveland clubhouse.

The second baseman has symbolized the Guardians’ second-half rally from 15 1/2 games behind Detroit in early July.