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    • All-star Steven Kwan helps propel the Cleveland Guardians to the ALCS
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    All-star Steven Kwan helps propel the Cleveland Guardians to the ALCS

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    CLEVELAND – Left fielder Steven Kwan is at the top of the Guardians’ batting order.

    What’s his name?

    Well, Kwan recorded 11 hits and scored six points last week to help the Guardians eliminate the Detroit Tigers in five games in an American League Division Series.

    Kwan went 3-for-5 with three hits and scored two runs in Cleveland’s 7-3 win over the Tigers in Saturday’s Game 5 at Progressive Field.

    “He’s a problem,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said of Kwan. “When he gets into this mode where he’s pulling the ball and shooting balls up the middle and he can stay on balls down the left field line, he’s very difficult to deal with.

    “He’s the engine. I like a lot of their players and a lot of what they did, but he’s an engine that creates a lot of pressure that you have to deal with behind him, no matter who they put in the two holes.” , and then Jose Ramirez and Lane Thomas – I’ll remember him for a long time – and Josh Naylor and (Andres) Gimenez are now at the bottom. They made contact, and that kind of player style and kind of mentality was sparked by Steven Kwan. He had an incredible run.”

    A sold-out crowd of 34,105 watched Kwan score two singles off Tigers ace Tarik Skubal on Saturday. The second basehit came in the Guardians’ five-run fifth inning, capped by a grand slam by Lane Thomas.

    After Andres Gimenez, Kwan and David Fry singled in the fifth, Skubal hit Jose Ramirez with a pitch to force in a run and tie the score, 1–1. Thomas then hit the next pitch over the left-center field fence for his second home run of the series.

    “That’s who we are,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “That’s who that group has been in that room all year. As soon as we take a hit, we answer. That’s been our MO all year, as soon as we give up a run, our guys come right back.”

    “And to take fifth, Jose gets hit by the pitch, Lane comes right up and gets the big hit. But we can’t rely on the home run. We’ve got to string things together, and our guys have done both “And then we got the extra runs at the end and I thought today was just a perfect representation of who our team is at our best, and it couldn’t have happened on a better day.”

    Kwan, an all-star in the American League this season, hit .524 in the series against the Tigers with 11 hits in 21 at-bats, two walks and a stolen base. Ten of his hits were singles and he also had a double.

    “Obviously we have a plan and we are trying to implement the plan,” Kwan said. “Once you hit the ball you don’t really have control over where it goes, so make sure you make good swings on it. I’ve obviously seen him (Skubal) before so that really helped, but I mean , it’s baseball. It’s hard sometimes, and when it’s good, it’s good.”

    Kwan has a hit in each of his last 10 playoff games as the Guardians head to the Bronx on Monday to face the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. That ties Kenny Lofton’s 10-game streak in 1995 as the longest postseason hitting streak in Cleveland history and is the longest active playoff hitting streak in the MLB.

    “Being able to see those shapes, see what their plan really is – (Skubal’s) got some really good stuff, he can pinpoint, so if he hits the spot you can’t really do anything about it – but just being able to see that’s always super useful,” Kwan said. “To be able to have that dialogue with other guys and formulate some kind of team plan. I think they all fit in there.”

    Kwan is the first Cleveland player and the third MLB player to record three or more hits in three consecutive postseason games, tying former Chicago White Sox infielder Tim Anderson (in 2020) and St. Louis Cardinals legend Lou Brock (in 1968) equalizes.

    Kwan’s 11 hits in the ALDS against Detroit set a Cleveland record for a single division series. The previous high was nine hits by Kwan in 2022 and Omar Vizquel in 1997 and 2001. Kwan’s 20 hits in his first 12 career playoff games are a franchise record for so many playoff games, surpassing Lofton’s 18 hits in 1995 .

    “When you see how Steven Kwan hits … you can’t hit in situations without guys taking good at-bats for you,” Thomas said. “It’s contagious, so you want to get through it because they got through it.”

    Kwan, a two-time Gold Gloves player, started his playoff career going 0-for-9 in two games in a 2022 AL wild card series against the Tampa Bay Rays before going 9-for-21 with four runs, a double, a home game. run, a walk and a stolen base in five games in a 2022 ALDS.

    Kwan was limited to 122 regular-season games this year due to hamstring and back injuries, which landed him on the injured list. He played in 147 games as a rookie in 2022 and 158 games in 2023.

    “Steven Kwan has been phenomenal all year,” Vogt said after Thursday’s 5-4 win in Game 4 at Comerica Park. “He’s a big player. We’ve seen it all year, and Kwany has been our spark plug and continues to be so.

    “And when you’re in the postseason, you’ve got to take what the pitcher gives you. You can’t try to do too much. And Kwany is the epitome of that and has been all year long.”

    Michael Beaven can be reached by email at [email protected] and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

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