The Cleveland Guardians are officially on a special playoff run.
They've rattled off four wins in a row through Monday night — three to comeback and beat the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS, and then a win in ALCS Game 1 at the Tampa Bay Rays with an in-game comeback from 2-0 down.
One of the most interesting aspects is that they've done it almost entirely without contributions from Brayan Rocchio, their starting shortstop.
Rocchio isn't hurt. He's been playing. He's just not doing much.
Through Game 1 of the ALCS, Rocchio is 2-for-18, a .111 batting average. He has walked three times and struck out six.
Rocchio has scored one run, driven in one run and stolen one base.
It's a small sample size, but it's not anywhere close to the positive impact Rocchio made in his continued improvements during the 2026 regular season.
The Guardians have also missed the clutch aspect of Rocchio.
During the regular season, Rocchio led all of baseball with four walk-off hits.
Even when it wasn't quite a game-ending situation, it felt like Rocchio often came up with a big hit at the crucial time.
His postseason hasn't yet felt like that, and so everyone is left waiting.
The sample size is six games so far, through ALCS Game 1 — enough to wonder if Rocchio is mired in a bit of an unfortunately timed slump.
The Guardians have hit him at or near the bottom of the order all year no matter how well he was hitting, like he was a chance to jumpstart things back to the top. The problem right now is that Rocchio isn't providing any jolts.
There is something to be said about the fact that for a clutch gene to be exhibited, it needs the right moments.
And while a league-leading walk-off hit total is impressive, there are still a lot of games in which Rocchio didn't have a walk-off hit. They're few and far between for anyone, even him.
So that means that Cleveland waits.
Rocchio can't even deliver a walk-off hit while on the road in Tampa Bay anyway. Those only happen at home.
He can be clutch on the road, to be sure, and the Guardians would gladly take that.
But at the moment, Rocchio feels a bit like a sleeping giant. Cleveland has seen all year that when the stakes are high, Rocchio is capable of rising to the occasion.
He hasn't done it yet in October, but there's a lot of month left. Don't forget about what Rocchio is capable of.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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