A signature Guardians moment just earned national recognition with a spot on a prestigious MLB season list, and fans are reliving it all over again.NL

The Cleveland Guardians didn’t just play baseball in 2025 – they lived on the edge. From a season that started with more questions than answers to a finish that felt ripped straight from a Hollywood script, the Guardians gave their fans a ride they won’t soon forget. And if you’re looking for a snapshot of just how wild this season was, look no further than Brayan Rocchio’s walk-off homer in Game 162 – a swing that not only won a game, but sealed a division title and earned a spot as the No. 13 play of the year.

Let’s set the stage: final game of the regular season, extra innings, division title on the line. And it’s Rocchio – not a guy known for moonshots – who steps up and delivers the moment of the year for Cleveland.

A 10th-inning walk-off home run that sent the Guardians into the postseason and sent the AL Central crown back to Cleveland. That swing wasn’t just clutch; it was historic.

Rocchio’s blast was the exclamation point on one of the most improbable comebacks in MLB history. This team was buried by June – 15.5 games back in the division, written off by just about everyone.

But something clicked in the second half. The Guardians caught fire, and they didn’t just chip away at the deficit – they erased it completely.

No team has ever come back from that far down to win a division. Cleveland did it with grit, timely pitching, and just enough offense to stay dangerous.

And when it mattered most, they delivered one of the most memorable finishes of any regular season in recent memory.

Now, let’s be real – the magic didn’t last into October. The same team they leapfrogged in the standings got their revenge in the postseason, exposing the offensive inconsistencies that had lingered all year. The Guardians simply couldn’t generate enough runs when it counted, and their playoff run ended almost as suddenly as it had begun.

But that doesn’t erase what they accomplished. This wasn’t a fluke.

It was a team that found its identity late, bought into its manager’s vision, and proved that even the most daunting deficits can be overcome with the right mix of belief and execution. That kind of resilience doesn’t just vanish in the offseason – it becomes part of a team’s DNA.

So while the Guardians didn’t get the fairytale ending, they did write one of the best chapters of the 2025 season. And Rocchio’s walk-off? That was the punctuation mark.