The Detroit Tigers struck out 13 and didn’t get a runner past first in the final four innings of Saturday’s 7-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
The Guardians’ Lane Thomas hit a three-run homer in a five-run outburst before Detroit got an out. Thomas’ shot – on his first career postseason swing – helped the Guardians cool off the Tigers, who stormed into the playoffs with a second-half surge before beating AL West champion Houston in the wildcard round.
Tanner Bibee pitched 4 2/3 innings before Guardians manager Stephen Vogt swung open the door to baseball’s best bullpen to finish off the Tigers. Relievers combined for 4 1/3 hitless innings to post the largest shutout victory margin in Cleveland postseason history.
Cleveland’s bullpen was as advertised. Rookie Cade Smith (1-0) replaced Bibee and struckout all four batters. Tim Herrin added the seventh, Hunter Gaddis added the eighth, and Emmanuel Clase, who led the AL with 47 saves, added the ninth.
David Fry added a two-run, sixth-inning double for the AL Central champion Guardians, who were untouched by not playing for nearly a week with a first-round bye.
Game 2 is Monday, when the Tigers turn to Tarik Skubal, the favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award, to try to win even the best-of-five series.
The 2,327th meeting between Detroit and Cleveland was the first between the franchises and Central Division rivals in the postseason.
After one inning it was as good as over.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch has been making the right decisions for months as his young club went from below .500 at the trade deadline to qualifying for the postseason with a 33-13 flourish since Aug. 11.
Hinch used his bullpen from the start in Game 1 and it backfired.
The Guardians sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning, with Thomas’ moon shot into the left-field stands opening the 5-0 lead. Cleveland became the first team in AL postseason history to score five points before recording an out.
Steven Kwan got things rolling with a leadoff double against Tigers starter Tyler Holton (0-1) and Fry walked. José Ramírez followed with a hard hopper to third, where Zach McKinstry made an error, allowing Kwan to score.
Josh Naylor’s RBI single made it 2-0 and Hinch pulled Holton after just four batters to bring in Reese Olson – the move blew up within seconds.
Thomas, who hit just .143 with 33 strikeouts in his first month with Cleveland after being acquired from Washington in July, made his first postseason at-bat with the Guardians unforgettable.
He turned on Olson’s first pitch – a slider into the heart of the plate – and launched it over the wall, sending the majority of the 33,548 fans inside Progressive Field into a frenzy.
Bibee admitted he felt nerves ahead of the opener, and he showed some in the first.
He gave up an one-out single and hit Riley Greene with two outs, prompting a visit from pitching coach Carl Willis. Bibee got Colt Keith on a lazy fly for the final out on his 27th pitch.
Taking the mound in the second inning with a five-run lead helped Bibee settle down. The righthander gave up four hits and struckout six.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb, a candidate to start Game 3, was added to the ALDS roster after finishing the regular season on the injured list with a blister on his middle finger. Cobb’s postseason experience — he defeated Cleveland in the 2013 wild-card round with Tampa Bay — certainly helped his case, along with the fact that he was a former teammate of Vogt’s. Cobb was acquired from San Francisco in a trade transaction in July.
NEXT
Skubal led the AL in wins (18), ERA (2.39) and strikeouts (228). The left-hander is expected to face Guardians RHP Matthew Boyd, who spent eight seasons with the Tigers and remains close friends with Skubal.
