Guardians take Game 5, slam door shut on Tigers' ALCS hopes

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Oct 12, 2024

Published in Baseball

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CLEVELAND — It’s going to take some time. The wounds from this one will take a while to scab over and heal.

But eventually the sting will subside and the magnitude of what this young Detroit Tigers team accomplished this season will sink in and heads will lift and chests will swell with pride.

Just not today.

This gloriously improbable run ended Saturday. Lane Thomas’ grand slam home run off ace Tarik Skubal in the bottom of the fifth inning sent the Guardians to a 7-3 win over the Tigers in Game 5.

The Guardians, champions of the American League Central Division, advance to the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees.

But what a run it’s been for the Tigers. They were eight games under .500 and given up for dead on Aug. 10. They traded four veteran players at the trade deadline and designated Gio Urshela and Shelby Miller for assignment.

Then, as Kerry Carpenter, Riley Greene and Parker Meadows returned to the lineup healthy, as manager AJ Hinch and pitching coach Chris Fetter creatively restructured the pitching staff deploying openers and bulk relievers, as young players like Trey Sweeney, Wenceel Perez and Colt Keith started to find their footing, they started to win.

They rolled into their first postseason in 10 years on a 31-13 run and then went into Houston and beat the playoff-seasoned Astros two straight in the wild-card Series to advance to the ALDS.

Then on Thursday in Game 4, they were seven outs away from eliminating the Guardians at Comerica Park before David Fry turned the game around with a late two-run homer.

It was a two-month joy ride that sports fans in Detroit will be talking about long after the disappointment of Game 5 dissipates.

And it looked for a brief minute like the ride would continue Saturday when they dramatically took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth.

The talk before the game centered on Carpenter’s injured left hamstring. Could he play? Could he at least give the Tigers one clutch swing? Hinch kept his cards hidden before the game, saying only that he hoped Carpenter would be available off the bench.

But this entire series has played out like a Hollywood script, so of course, Carpenter got his Kirk Gibson moment.

Against right-handed reliever Andrew Walters, Hinch sent Carpenter up to hit for Justyn-Henry Malloy. Trey Sweeney, who had walked, was on first. Walters threw three straight balls but Carpenter was hacking on 3-0, fouling off a middle-middle fastball.

He got another fastball on 3-1 and obliterated it, lining it to the base of the wall in right-center. Carpenter limped to first base and stopped as Sweeney motored all the way home, sliding just head of the relay throw.

Skubal had been in complete control of the game through four innings. He was on a run of 17 straight scoreless innings in the postseason. He had allowed two hits with five strikeouts and finally had a lead to work with.

But singles by No. 8 hitter Andres Gimenez and pesky leadoff hitter Steven Kwan put Skubal under duress. An infield single by Fry loaded the bases with one out for Guardians superstar Jose Ramirez.

Skubal drilled Ramirez in the left arm with a 99-mph fastball, forcing in the tying run. Ramirez, after being tended to by the trainer, stayed in the game.

Thomas ambushed the next pitch from Skubal, a center-cut 97-mph sinker. The ball left his bat at 107.7 mph and flew 396 feet over the high wall in left.

It was a dagger to the heart, but the Tigers, true to form, didn’t die right away.

They produced a two-out run in the top of the sixth — double by Spencer Torkelson (his second of the game) and a single by Jake Rogers — and loaded the bases with two outs.

It set up another Hollywood moment for Carpenter. But right-hander Hunter Gaddis altered the script. He struck out Carpenter, getting him to chase a 96-mph heater at the top of the zone.

The Guardians leaned heavily on their bullpen this series and cracks were starting to show. Manager Stephen Vogt used Cade Smith, for the fifth time in the series, in the third inning after former Tiger Matthew Boyd struck out five in two scoreless innings to start the game.

By the eighth inning, he’d used six relievers including top leverage arms Tim Herrin and Gaddis.

The Tigers nicked Gaddis in the seventh. Greene singled and scored on a long double to center by Keith.

Vogt called on right-hander Eli Morgan to finish the inning. He stranded Keith, striking out Perez and Torkelson.

The Guardians tacked on a run in the seventh and again Kwan was at the center of it. He got his third hit of the game — he posted three hits in three games and had 11 hits in the series — and scored on an infield single by Thomas.

The added another in the eighth on an RBI single by Brayan Rocchio, another thorn in the Tigers' side, getting at least one hit in every game.

It gave Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase a cushion to get the final six outs, which he did without stress.

Sometimes the better team wins.

Game over. Season over. Memories forever.

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