Tigers 3, Guardians 0: Pitching Chaos brings Cleveland to the brink

The Tigers took a 2-1 lead in their Division Series and can close out Cleveland on Thursday.

Comerica Park hosted its first playoff game in a decade on Wednesday afternoon, and the home crowd saw the Tigers throw their second consecutive combined shutout on a crisp October day, winning 3-0 to take a 2-1 lead in their American League Division Series. It was also their second consecutive 3-0 victory. I can dig it.

Tigers manager AJ Hinch’s “pitching chaos” approach spun the wheel and landed on righty Keider Montero to get things started, and Brant Hurter, a lefty, to take over afterwards… but when? That was the question only Hinch had the answer too, and Guardians manager Steven Vogt had to find out the hard way. As it turns out, Vogt probably bet on Montero going farther in this game than he ultimately did, which caused him to eventually burn through most of his bench players.

Montero has been up-and-down in his 19 appearances (including 16 starts): sure, he threw a Maddux against the Rockies in September, but he also had his fair share of clunkers. He threw two innings of scoreless, one-hit, three-whiff relief in the Wild Card series, though — so he’s got that going for him, which is nice. Hurter had been great in the regular season, with a WHIP under 1.00 in 45 ¹⁄₃ innings and 10 appearances, and also doing a great job limiting hard contact.

It’s worth remembering that these guys are young, and while that comes with inexperience, it also means they’re still developing under the keen eyes of Chris Fetter, Dr. Robin Lund, and Juan Nieves. This team may still be improving as we move through October.

The Guardians countered with Alex Cobb as their starter. The longtime Tampa Bay Ray has bounced around a bit in the past few years, spending time in Baltimore, Anaheim and San Francisco before landing in Cleveland and making only three starts for the Guardians, and none since September 1 due to a variety of injuries longer than your arm; he threw a simulated game since then, but that’s it.

Montero had a sleepy first — and as it turns out, only — inning, and in the bottom of the frame the Tigers got on the board with a leadoff single by Parker Meadows, and after a two-out groundout moved Meadows over to second, Riley Greene cashed-in Meadows with a single up the middle for a 1-0 lead.

After an inning Montero was out, Hurter was in, and Vogt was forced to burn a pretty good player in Will Brennan in the second inning to get a more favorable platoon matchup. Hurter got himself into a jam with a couple of singles putting runners on first and second with no outs, but Hurter’s change of speeds had the Guardians off balance and three straight soft fly outs ended the inning without any damage.

In the third, Steven Kwan hit a one-out grounder that ticked off Hurter’s glove; Trey Sweeney charged, fielded, and fired wide of first, allowing Kwan to advance to second. After a strikeout, José Ramírez was intentionally walked; the strategy paid off as Josh Naylor grounded out to first to end the inning.

The bottom of that inning saw Jake Rogers spank a leadoff double down the left-field line; he advanced to third on a Meadows groundout. Matt Vierling had another “productive out” by hitting a sacrifice fly to left, pushing the score to 2-0.

Cobb was out after three innings, and big lefty Erik Sabrowski relieved him and was a little wild but got through the fourth.

The top of the fifth featured a pair of one-out singles by Brayan Rocchio and Kwan to put two runners on; Hurter departed, Beau Brieske was brought in, and he got David Fry on a swinging strikeout for the second out. However, up next was the always-dangerous Ramírez; Tiger fans thus clenched various muscles and orifices, but Brieske got Ramírez to fly out to Meadows in centre and the threat was quenched.

With one out and Rogers on first after a walk, Justyn-Henry Malloy was inserted as a pinch-hitter for Kerry Carpenter to face Sabrowski. Vogt’s turn to the tougher Herrin was the counter move, and while it seemed a bit aggressive to pull Carpenter in that situation, J-Hen drew a walk to put two runners on. Vierling flew out to left but the runners couldn’t advance, leaving things up to Greene; he worked the count full but a flare to left field was caught by Kwan for the third out.

Brieske carried on to the sixth and had a 1-2-3 inning; Cleveland brought in righty Eli Morgan and with one out Colt Keith singled to right. He was wild-pitched to second, and Spencer Torkelson yanked a double to left to score Keith and push the lead to 3-0. Keith, and particularly Torkelson, really needed those knocks. Hopefully they can settle in and stay productive.

After Trey Sweeney struck out Morgan was dispatched in favour of righty rookie — shoot, how many rookies are pitching in this game?! — Cade Smith, who struck out Rogers to end the inning.

Brieske got the first out of the seventh, going six-up six-down in total. Sean Guenther came in, and Vogt had to burn yet another pinch-hitter… who grounded out harmlessly to first. Rocchio then walked, the pesky Kwan singled to right-center and Will Vest was summoned to face the righty Fry. He fouled off some tough fastballs, then he hit a sizzling line drive that Vierling snagged at third for the final out of the inning. That was a huge play and the final deflation of the Guardians hopes in this one as Jose Ramirez was left in the on deck circle.

Vierling was pumped, and so was the crowd.

Vest carried on into the eighth and got a pair of flyouts and a strikeout, and my goodness, has he been good lately. Would his four-up, four-down, 20-pitch performance be short enough to be used again tomorrow? I guess we’ll see.

Tyler Holton took over to start the ninth with a 3-0 lead: he got Andrés Giménez to ground out softly to first, Jhonkensy “Big Christmas” Noel grounded out to third, and Austin Hedges struck out swinging to end the game.

Detroit can close out their ALDS with a win at home on Thursday; Reese Olson is likely to pitch the bulk innings, and game time is set for 6:08 pm EDT. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING, PEOPLE!!!

Box Score: Tigers 3, Guardians 0

Tram… on the mound?

Well, technically he was in front of it, but the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Tiger legend and Hall of Famer Alan Trammell. He’s done a ton for the franchise, not only being their major-league manager through an awful three-year stretch (and getting the most he could out of some very marginal major-leaguers), but he has spent years working with minor-leaguers up and down the entire system.

Numbers and Whatnot

• The previous postseason game at Comerica Park was on October 5, 2014 : Baltimore completed a three-game ALDS sweep by beating the Tigers 2-1. Jonathan Schoop batted ninth and played second base for the Orioles that day.
• The attendance today at Comerica Park was 44,885 — the largest ever for a postseason game in said stadium.
• On this day in 1604 a supernova was observed in the constellation Ophiuchus, and it’s the most recent supernova to be observed from our own Milky Way galaxy. It was visible in the daytime sky for a few weeks as well, and was recorded by astronomers around the world.