After many ups and downs, including a catastrophic September, it is officially time for October baseball to start. Even though, yes, it is still late September. Regardless. The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland
Guardians kicked off the postseason this afternoon with reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal facing off against burgeoning ace Gavin Williams. Both offenses have faced this starter twice in recent weeks and struggled, so the Tigers will need to flip the script with their offensive approach today.
After so much letdown recently, Detroit’s 2-pitch, 2-out start was rather inauspicious. However, signs the Guardian’s voodoo magic might not last appeared when Kerry Carpenter’s routine single to right was booted for an extra base. Spencer Torkelson’s ensuing bloop single brought him home and gave Skubal an early lead. Unfortunately, Riley Greene struck out to keep things at 1.
Skubal’s day began much nicer than Williams’ did. Steven Kwan showed bunt before slapping a grounder to Javier Baez at shortstop. From there, Skubal struck out Angel Martinez and Jose Ramirez for a perfect inning.
Williams bounced back with an inning Tiger fans all over recognized from the playoff race. Detroit went down in order while chasing a lot of sharp breaking balls that tumbled down or out of the zone. Zack McKinstry in particular fell victim to a nasty one for a second Williams strikeout.
Skubal returned with one of the easiest innings you can find in October: a first-pitch groundout, a single, and then a second-pitch double play. In all, that was 6 pitches for 3 outs and 20 pitches in total.
Baez led off the third with a single to right just past a diving second baseman. Meadows then worked a full-count walk on what should absolutely have been strike 3, and it appeared the umpire decided to stop calling strikes for a while. Williams was visibly upset but bounced back from a pretty unfair 2-0 count on Gleyber Torres to earn a double play to shortstop. Carpenter than worked him for 9 more pitches before striking out and wasting 2 baserunners with nobody out. Surely that would pose no issues later…
Skubal continued to pitch like a 1-run lead would be enough. Two quick strikeouts made the four-pitch walk to, uhm, Austin Hedges a bit surprising, and a bit concerning with Kwan coming up, but nothing came of it. Kwan lined out to left field for no further damage.
Williams decided to one-up Skubal’s last inning by skipping the walk. Instead, he got Torkelson to pop out to center and then rang up both Greene and Wenceel Perez looking at curves on the bottom rail for a really impressive inning. Meanwhile, Guardians manager Steven Vogt was saying Williams had earned the right to pitch until he faltered, and he sure looked the part there.
Remember that luck I said was fading earlier? It came back. After an amusing delay where a 100 mph fastball was fouled into a camera and shattered the glass, Martinez singled on a dribbler to second. Ramirez walked and then Skubal almost got out of it with 2 straight strikeouts. Unfortunately, Cleveland could not contain and a high chopper behind the mound somehow scored the runner from second. Skubal did throw home and Martinez was ruled out, but a very easy challenge overturned it. Thankfully, Bryan Rocchio went for a two-out bunt to end the inning, but it was all tied up.
The fifth inning started no kinder to Detroit’s bats. Dillon Dingler and McKinstry went down easily before Baez lined another one on the corner into right for a second single. This is the world we live in, somehow. Unfortunately, Meadows struck out on a curve on the outside corner.
Skubal realized the Guardians couldn’t score if they couldn’t hit the ball and simply tore them apart in the fifth. Jhonkensy Noel and Hedges struck out on 7 total pitches, then Kwan grounded out to third.
Williams had matched Skubal pitch for pitch so far and continued to do so here in the 6th. Torres flew out to center. Then, Carpenter hit one high and deep to left field that Kwan camped under just shy of the warning track, and Torkelson got rung up on two checked swings that, well, let’s just say it would have been nice to see the side view for those. Alas, Williams was cruising through 6 pretty easy innings.
Not to be outdone, Skubal simply came back for his 9th and 10th strikeouts of the day and second straight 1-2-3 inning. Martinez and Johnathan Rodriguez struck out to sandwich a Ramirez pop-up to right. At only 82 pitches, it was certain he would be coming out for more.
Finally, Detroit’s luck started to change, little by little. Greene finally put wood on the ball with a double to center; Perez then reached on a strange infield single. The ball caromed off the first baseman, and then the first baseman did the splits over the bag while receiving the throw, missing it entirely, so Perez reached safely while Greene moved to third.
Williams came out, Hunter Gaddis came in, and the battle of the bullpens began. Dingler struck out before McKinstry pulled a bunt down the first base line and traded an out for the lead. Baez then smoked a grounder to shortstop; an errant throw almost pulled the first baseman off the bag, but he barely held on for the third out.
Armed with a lead, Skubal buzzsawed his way through Cleveland once more. 14 pitches, 5 of which topped 100 and one of which popped 101 (!!) yielded three more strikeouts and no threats of contact. Kyle Manzardo, Gabriel Arias and Rocchio all walked back shaking their heads at the vicious heat Skubal blew past them. He was up to 13 on the afternoon and showed no signs of slowing down.
The eighth started quietly for Detroit. Meadows and Torres both struck out against Hunter Gaddis. The Guardians went to their bullpen again, bringing in the big lefty Erik Sabrowski for Carpenter, who did stay in the game. With 2 outs and nobody on, this wasn’t exactly leverage, but it was still surprising to see Carpenter against a really sharp lefty. He struck out, of course, but I suppose keeping him in for now lets him threaten Cade Smith later.
Skubal returned for the eighth and promptly struck out Noel one more time for his 14th strikeout. Hedges walked, again, bringing up Kwan with one out and Skubal stayed in despite being at 105 total pitches. Kwan grounded out to Skubal, who bobbled it to ruin the double play chances but still got Kwan at first for the second out. After 107 pitches, he finally yielded to the bullpen; Will Vest had to finish the job. Pinch hitter Bo Naylor came in and grounded out to first, ending the threat. Skubal’s final line was 7.2 innings, 14 Ks, 3 BBs, 1 ER and 3 hits. That is historical dominance from a storied franchise.
Dominant closer Cade Smith came in to keep Cleveland close and hit Torkelson with the first pitch, putting the leadoff man on. Greene then worked a walk and Perez bunted both runners up a base. Unfortunately, Dingler popped up to second for the second out on a diving play and McKinstry struck out on a curve in the dirt to strand both. The closest thing to a positive out of that inning is that Smith threw 19 pitches.
Vest came back to protect a 1-run lead. Naturally, Ramirez led off. Baez made a diving play on his hard grounder up the middle, but the throw bounced into Ramirez and he ended up all the way on third to lead off. A pinch-hitting George Valera struck out for some breathing room. Then, Manzardo’s grounder to Vest got Ramirez in a rundown for the second out, putting Manzardo on first.
Finally, CJ Kayfus hit a first-pitch pinch-hit pop-up to Javy to end the game for a Vest save and a DETROIT WIN!
