CLEVELAND – It was a perfect afternoon for postseason baseball at Progressive Field, and Guardians fans had waited long enough.
Cleveland had earned a coveted first-round bye, bypassing the harrowing wild-card round, but also five extra days for fans to anticipate the unparalleled sense of encouragement for their team in October. A healthy contingent of Tigers fans were spread throughout the venue on Saturday, eager to see if their team could stay warm after beating the Astros on the road.
However, this day would be all about the home team. All concerns that Cleveland would start slowly due to the extended layoff – one that became even longer than expected after Game 162 vs. Houston was rained out – were suppressed before the Tigers had even recorded a clean sheet in the Guardians’ eventual 7-0 victory in Game. 1 of these ALDS.
Steven Kwan drilled opener Tyler Holton’s second pitch off the right field wall for a leadoff double that came within inches of a leadoff home run, and that set the tone. David Fry, Cleveland’s unlikely All-Star with a .430 OBP against lefties this season, walked. José Ramírez chopped a hard ground ball that third baseman Zack McKinstry couldn’t handle, and it trickled into the left field corner, allowing Kwan to score the game’s first run.
Josh Naylor followed with a single through the right side, scoring Fry and putting runners on the corners with Lane Thomas approaching. Thomas’ record of punishing left-handed pitching — career .880 OPS against lefties, compared to a mark of .680 vs. righties — spelled the end of the day for the lefty Holton. In came righty Reese Olson, the latest Tiger to make his postseason debut.
Thomas only needed one pitch to provide exactly what the Guardians were looking for when they acquired him at the trade deadline: someone who can do damage. after Ramirez and Naylor.
A vicious cut from Thomas on an Olson slider on the first pitch sent the ball flying toward the left-field stands, eventually landing a projected 400 feet from home plate. Seemingly in the blink of an eye it was 5-0 Guardians. Damage has certainly been done.
Cleveland’s five-run blitz in the first inning tied the MLB record for runs scored to start a postseason game before recording an out, joining last year’s D-backs in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers. Arizona’s barrage came on the road in front of a downright stunned – and in turn, silent – Dodger Stadium. Cleveland’s nearly unprecedented offensive performance came in front of a packed home crowd of 33,548 that was eager to explode before the Guardians even picked up a bat.
Ramírez and Naylor delivering big hits has become a common occurrence for the Cleveland crowd. Thomas is a much fresher face, however, having been acquired from the Nationals at the deadline in an attempt to extend the Guardians’ lineup, which had become somewhat top-heavy. Thomas initially struggled with Cleveland, hitting .143/.239/.195 with zero home runs in 27 games in August. But an .855 OPS in September boosted his confidence down the stretch, allowing him to make an impact for Cleveland once the postseason started.
“I heard this is a great place to play in the postseason,” Thomas said Friday ahead of Game 1. “So I’m excited to play in front of the fans that have supported us all year.”
Thomas’ review of the Cleveland crowd after experiencing it?
“It was electric,” he said on stage after the match. “I think it was everything I thought it would be and more. It was really cool to see the first four guys take incredible at-bats and then come through for them.
AJ Hinch explains pitching move — ‘blow we didn’t recover from’
For Detroit, a pitching strategy that rarely faltered during a remarkable run to the postseason and past the Astros backfired in spectacular fashion on Saturday. Holton’s initial problems would have been difficult to overcome no matter who replaced him, but the choice to throw Olson into this particular fire — runners on the corners with no one out and the crowd volume near maximum — was a curious choice.
For all that has been rightly said about how many Tigers pitchers can perform in just about any role, Olson felt like a slightly different case. He had not pitched since September 26, he had not made a relief appearance this season and he had never started a game with runners on base as a big leaguer.
Then manager AJ Hinch explained his decision to go to Olson at that spot.
“We told him early in the day that Lane Thomas’ at-bat was going to be it,” Hinch said. “And if you look at Lane Thomas’ next two at-bats” – Thomas struck out swinging in the second and flew out on the first pitch against Olson in the fifth – “that was a little more what we had set up. I mean, sometimes their man beats our man.
“Reese was ready, and there were no excuses, and we did this with pretty much our entire roster. When it doesn’t work, you wonder. But we can’t… you know, we can’t really blame anyone other than a good swing on a pitch that changed the game, or separated the game for them, and a hit that we didn’t recover from.”
Olson may have been ready, but so was Thomas: “I had met him earlier in the season before I came here. And I figured in that situation I was either going to get a fastball, a little bit off the plate, or something soft that I could hit in the air and at least score that run from third. So I picked one or the other and found the one I was looking for and gave it a good spin.
Olson hung a slider right up the middle, Thomas made him pay and Game 1 felt like a wrap from the start.
Guardians starter Tanner Bibee digs deep into his bag
Guardians starter Tanner Bibee provided a sizable early lead, attacking the zone with all of his pitches – including an intriguing new offering in his recently reintroduced sinker – and preventing Detroit from mounting any semblance of a rally to get back into the game come. After throwing just nine sinkers this season (all in his last two starts), Bibee threw 10 in Game 1.
He told Yahoo Sports postgame that in recent weeks he decided to bring back the sinker, which he threw in college, to give him another weapon to induce weak contact. And that was on display several times Saturday: The sinker allowed Colt Keith to fly out softly to cap a tumultuous 27-pitch first inning and coax a ground ball from Spencer Torkelson for a double play in the fourth.
Bibee left a little earlier than expected, at just 76 pitches with two outs in the fifth, but with an off day between Games 1 and 2, manager Stephen Vogt had the luxury of being ultra-aggressive with his bullpen, even with a substantial lead. With Kerry Carpenter, Detroit’s most dangerous hitter against right-handed pitching, scheduled with a runner on base, Vogt handed the ball to rookie right-hander Cade Smith to end the modest threat. Smith – who, as the fWAR leader among all relievers in the regular season, has a sneaky strong case in the AL Rookie of the Year race – striking out Carpenter on three pitches and then adding three more punchouts in his postseason debut.
From there the Guardians left. Fry added two more runs with a double in the bottom of the sixth before Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase recorded the remaining nine outs without much trouble. The 7-0 win for Cleveland was as impressive and comfortable a win as you’ll see this time of year; dismissal or not, it would be hard to write a better start to this series for the Guardians.
“The way we looked at it, we got five days of rest. We can recover. We can have a few days off,” Vogt said after the match. ‘And we’ve worked hard on it. It is a credit to the players that they have put a lot of effort into our training. They got competitive with each other in some simulated games, and it showed. We came out ready to swing the bat, and it looked like we hadn’t taken five days off.
For now, Detroit can take solace in knowing it gets to hand the ball to left-hander Tarik Skubal on Monday for Game 2. The showdown with Skubal will be an undeniable challenge for Cleveland — and a chance to ride the momentum of a resounding Game 1 victory . helping level the playing field against such a tough opponent on the mound. For the 27-year-old left-hander, the stage is clear for him to play hero again and try to recapture some good vibes for a Tigers team that needs a stronger collective effort if it wants to turn this series back in its favor tilt.
