After meekly surrendering to the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of their American League Division Series, the Detroit Tigers didn’t score for the first eight innings — and neither did their opponents — but a stunning home run against a nearly-unhittable closer was the difference in a 3-0 victory to even the American League Division Series at a game apiece.
Tarik Skubal made his second start of the postseason, after his solid debut in Houston last week. In that game, he added yet another great performance to his career with six shutout innings, surrendering four hits, walking one and striking out a half-dozen. He also yelled a lot to punctuate inning-ending strikeouts, as one does.
Facing Skubal was Old Friend™ Matthew Boyd which gives me a reason to post this, perhaps for the last time:
Still cracks me up. Anyway, Boyd memorably had two stints with the Tigers, from 2015-21, then during the 2023 season; halfway through that, he needed Tommy John surgery for a UCL tear, and came back with Cleveland, making eight starts in August and September. He pitched into (or completed) the sixth inning in the first five starts, but faltered a little in the final three. Well, he was solid today.
In the third, Justyn-Henry Malloy singled with one out and Matt Vierling followed with his second walk of the day; Andy Ibáñez flew out to right and Malloy advanced to third to put runners on the corners. Alas, Riley Greene grounded out to second to end the threat.
The first time through the lineup Skubal set all nine batters down, six on strikes. He worked at his customary brisk pace and was hitting 99 mph. Vintage.
Wenceel Pérez led off the fourth with a double down the left-field line and advanced to third on a deep Spencer Torkelson fly ball to right. Parker Meadows and Jake Rogers then both struck out, stranding Pérez and getting Tiger fans wondering if they’d ever score in this series.
With one out in the fifth, Malloy hit a shot into the right field corner where Jhonkensy Noel fielded it, wheeled around, and threw an off-balance seed to nail Malloy at second. Gotta tip your cap to “Big Christmas” there.
That was the end of Boyd’s day, Cade Smith came on in relief, and Vierling struck out in an eight-pitch at-bat.
With one out in the bottom of the same inning, Josh Naylor got the Guardians’ first hit (and was their first baserunner) with a double to centre. Skubal then hit Noel, who was right on top of the plate, with a four-seamer on the left hand, putting two runners on… but on the next pitch, Skubal got Andrés Giménez to hit a grounder to second for, as they say, a “tailor-made” double play to get out of the inning. That’s some next-level pitching, right there.
Cleveland got runners on the corners in the sixth with one out: Brayan Rocchio hit a double to left and Steven Kwan followed with a single. David Fry, a double-play candidate, did just that: Trey Sweeney at shortstop charged in, flipped it back to Colt Keith at second base, who fired a bullet to a stretching Torkelson to get another gigantic double play.
Smith got the first out of the top of the seventh, Tim Herrin relieved him, got Meadows to fly out to deep right, walked Rogers, but struck out Sweeney swinging to end the inning. Skubal kept on rolling through the seventh with a pair of groundouts sandwiched around a lineout.
The score was still knotted at goose-eggs to start the eighth, as Hunter Gaddis took over on the mound. With one out Vierling scorched a liner to centre for a double… and Emmanuel Clase started getting loose in the bullpen at that point, so there was no time to waste for the Tigers, evidently. Greene was intentionally walked, Clase was brought in to face Pérez, who hit a sinking liner to left; Kwan raced in and to his left and made an incredible diving backhanded catch.
This catch would be scrutinized like the Zapruder film for the next inning and a half, but fortunately it didn’t matter.
Will Vest relieved Skubal to start the eighth; Skubal’s sensational final line was 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, with 65 of his 92 pitches thrown for strikes. Vest got a lineout and a strikeout, then pinch-hitter Kyle Manzardo hit a fly ball that Meadows jumped to grab at the wall. (There wasn’t any home run robbery this time, as that wall is tall in left-center, but it was still a fine catch.)
So, on went the game to the ninth inning, still scoreless. Clase carried on into the ninth for a rare (for him) multi-inning appearance, and with two outs Rogers singled to left. Sweeney followed with a single to centre to put runners on the corners, bringing Kerry Carpenter to the plate who fouled off a 101 mph cutter before seeing a slider over the plate and… well…
I told my wife that Carpenter had just hit a three-run home run off a nearly-unhittable pitcher. Her response: “Well, as they say, this season has been pretty unprecedented so far.” She’s a smart cookie.
Clase coaxed a ground ball to first out of Vierling but he and Josh Naylor botched the play. Clase left, Eli Morgan came in and got a popout to second from Keith, but it was now 3-0 in front of a stunned crowd in Toothbrush-Shaped Lights Stadium going to the bottom of the ninth.
Beau Brieske came on for the save and he was nails: Rocchio flew out to centre, Kwan — who rarely strikes out — was retired for excessive window-shopping, and Fry found the same fate to end the game.
This is fun, folks… but it’s hard on my heart!
Box Score: Tigers 3, Guardians 0
Notes and Observations
- This was Matthew Boyd’s third career appearance and first start against the Tigers. Both of his previous appearances were relief outings in 2022 when Boyd was a Mariner. This was also Boyd’s first-ever postseason start; he had one relief appearance with Seattle in 2022.
- Lefties this year against Clase had a .115 batting average with zero (0) home runs… before today.
- Half of the Tigers’ 26-man ALDS roster is made up of rookies. That’s bananas.
- This is the first postseason series ever in which two of the five-youngest teams in baseball have faced each other.
- Wait a minute, Progressive Field only holds thirty-four thousand and change? Weird.
- On this day in 1916 in college football, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland by a score of 222-0. I really should’ve taken the Yellow Jackets in this one, I guess.