Tigers 3, Guardians 0: The Cardiac Cats strike again

After humiliatingly defeating the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of their American League Division Series, the Detroit Tigers didn't score in the first eight innings – and neither did their opponents – but a stunning home run against a nearly unbeatable closer made the difference a 3-0 win even won the American League Division Series per game.

Tarik Skubal made his second postseason start after a solid debut last week in Houston. In that game, he added another great performance to his career, pitching six shutout innings, four hits, one walk, and a half-dozen strikeouts. He also yelled a lot to punctuate inning-ending strikeouts, as one often does.

Skubal faced Old Friend™ Matthew Boyd, which gives me a reason to post this, perhaps for the last time:

Still drives me crazy. Either way, Boyd memorably had two stints with the Tigers, from 2015-21, then during the 2023 season; At center, he underwent Tommy John surgery for a torn ACL and returned with Cleveland, where he made eight starts in August and September. He got one pitch into (or completed) the sixth inning in his first five starts, but faltered a bit in his last three. Well, he was solid today.

In the third, Justyn-Henry Malloy singled and Matt Vierling followed with his second walk of the day; Andy Ibáñez flew to right and Malloy advanced to third to put runners on the corners. Unfortunately, Riley Greene ended up in second place, ending the danger.

In his first time in the lineup, Skubal struck out all nine batters, six of them on strikes. He worked at his usual brisk pace, reaching a speed of 99 miles per hour. Vintage.

Wenceel Pérez led off the fourth with a double down the left field line and advanced to the third on a deep fly ball from Spencer Torkelson to right. Then Parker Meadows and Jake Rogers both struck out, leaving Pérez stranded and leaving Tiger fans wondering if they had done that always Score in this series.

With one out in the fifth, Malloy hit a shot into the right field corner, where Jhonkensy Noel caught it, spun around and threw an off-balance seed to pin Malloy to second. You have to look at “Big Christmas”.

That was the end of Boyd's day, Cade Smith came on as a 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 center. Skubal then hit Noel, who was at the top of the plate, with a four-seamer in left hand, putting two runners on…but on the next pitch, Skubal got Andrés Giménez to hit a grounder to second, for as you say, a “tailor-made” double play to get out of the inning. This is pitching at the highest level.

Cleveland got it in the sixth with one out on the corners: 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 rushed in and hit it back to Colt Keith at second base, who fired a bullet to a stretching Torkelson for another gigantic double play .

Smith struck out first in the top of the seventh, Tim Herrin relieved him, got Meadows to fly wide to right, walked to Rogers, but struck out Sweeney with a swing to end the inning. Skubal continued to roll through the seventh with two groundouts around a lineout.

There was still unrest at the start of the eighth round when Hunter Gaddis took the lead. With one out, Vierling sank a liner to center for a double…and Emmanuel Clase was starting to let loose in the bullpen at that point, so the Tigers obviously had no time to waste. Greene was intentionally missed, Clase was passed to Pérez, who hit a sinking liner to left; Kwan ran left and made an incredible backhand catch.

That catch was scrutinized like Zapruder film over the next inning and a half, but luckily it didn't matter.

Will Vest replaced Skubal at the start of the eighth period; Skubal's sensational final line was 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, with 65 of his 92 pitches coming 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 was no home run robbery this time because the wall is high in left-center, but it was still a good catch.)

The game continued like this until the ninth inning, still scoreless. Clase entered the ninth, where he made a rare (for him) multi-inning appearance, and with two outs, Rogers hit a single to left. Sweeney followed with a single up the middle to put runners on the corners, bringing up Kerry Carpenter to the plate, who had fouled 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 with a nearly unbeatable pitcher. Her response: “Well, as they say, this season has “It's been pretty unprecedented.” She's a smart cookie.

Clase got a groundball to first from Vierling, but he and Josh Naylor fumbled the play. Clase walked, Eli Morgan came in and got a popout from Keith to second, but it was now 3-0 before a stunned Tooth Shaped Lights Stadium crowd ending the bottom of the ninth.

Beau Brieske made the save and was completely out of action: Rocchio flew up the middle, Kwan – who rarely strikes – was ejected for excessive window shopping and Fry suffered the same fate as he finished the game.

This is fun, guys… 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. His two previous appearances were backup assignments in 2022, when Boyd was a Mariner. This was also Boyd's first-ever postseason start; He had a backup gig with Seattle in 2022.
• The left-handed hitter had a .115 batting average with zero (0) home runs against Clase this year… before today.
• Half of the Tigers' 26-man ALDS roster is made up of freshmen. These are bananas.
• This is the first postseason series ever to pit two of the five youngest teams in baseball against each other.
• Wait, Progressive Field only holds 34,000 and change? Strange.
• On this day in 1916, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland 222-0 in college football. I think I really should have picked the Yellow Jackets here.