DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers' magical run came to an end Saturday with a loss in Game 5 of the ALDS in Cleveland.
I didn’t expect to be writing about the Tigers on Oct. 12. It’s a college football Saturday, the Lions are playing in Dallas tomorrow, and the Red Wings are just hours away from their second game.
Plus, you know, there was the whole “10 games back” and “nine games below .500″ thing.
But out of nowhere, against all odds, the 2024 Tigers just delivered the funnest two months of baseball this city has seen in a decade.
It began in mid-August, when the Tigers had a 0.2% chance at the postseason, per Fangraphs. They ripped off 31 wins in 42 games to clinch a playoff spot and enter October as the hottest team in the league.
Then they went into Houston and slammed the door on what’s currently the AL’s top dynasty. It was a sweep, and the game-winning hit came against a closer earning more money per year than the entire Tigers wild card roster.
Detroit was so close to keeping the dream alive, too. After losing Game 1 of the ALDS, the Tigers won the next two and carried a lead into the seventh inning of Game 4, with a chance to celebrate in front of 45,000 home fans.
It wasn’t meant to be. David Fry hit a two-out, two-strike homer in the seventh to give the Guardians a late lead, and they evened the series.
Two days later, former Tigers fan favorite Matthew Boyd led the charge for the enemy, as Cleveland earned a date with the New York Yankees in the ALCS.
Boyd struck out five Tigers and got 11 swings and misses in just two innings of work. He stranded two runners in the first and pitched around a Parker Meadows double and stolen base with one out in the second.
The Tigers wasted early scoring chances that could have given Tarik Skubal a lead and put the Guardians on their heels.
Strikeouts by Matt Vierling, Andy Ibanez, and Wenceel Perez doomed the Tigers in the first and a shallow fly out by Jake Rogers followed by a Trey Sweeney strikeout stranded Meadows in the second.
Rogers came up with Spencer Torkelson in scoring position and two outs in the fourth and grounded out to short. Torkelson had ripped a double high off the left field wall after working a full count against nasty right-handed reliever Cade Smith.
The Tigers finally got on the board in the top of the fifth, courtesy of a Kerry Carpenter pinch-hit single off the right field wall, but the lead didn’t last.
Skubal loaded the bases with one out before hitting Jose Ramirez to force in the tying run. On the very next pitch, Lane Thomas hit a dagger of a grand slam to give the Guardians a 5-1 lead.
Detroit has a knack for fighting back, though, and in the very next inning, the Tigers scratched across a run and got Carpenter back up with the bases loaded and two outs.
Carpenter fouled off a pair of fastballs in the zone and then struck out on a high heater.
Skubal got the offense right back at it with a 1-2-3 sixth, and Colt Keith ripped an RBI double off the center field wall to make it 5-3 in the seventh.
But in the bottom half, a couple of weakly hit bouncers turned into hits for Cleveland and brought in a backbreaking sixth run. Tyler Holton gave up run No. 7 in the bottom of the eighth, but by then, the ball had been handed over to Emmanuel Clase, and the game was virtually over.
The Tigers finally ran out of gas.
It’s an important offseason for the Tigers' front office. With two more years of Skubal, this team needs at least one right-handed power bat, likely at third base, to elevate the offense.
Even though the Tigers came up short, this late run could be a sign of more competitive baseball in the years to come.
