close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • Detroit Tigers cause playoff chaos against Guardians in ALDS Game 3
    news

    Detroit Tigers cause playoff chaos against Guardians in ALDS Game 3

    Vaseline Posted on

    play

    The Detroit Tigers are on the brink of the unthinkable, and no one would blame anyone for putting themselves in a bind wondering if this will actually happen.

    But that’s what it is. And until it doesn’t, you might as well throw all your imagination into where this could lead.

    Why stop dreaming now?

    The Tigers are one game away from the American League Championship Series after defeating the Cleveland Guardians 3-0 in Game 3 of the American League Division Series at Comerica Park on Wednesday.

    Once again the Tigers did it their way:

    The starter pitched an inning. The reliever threw three. The sometimes closer followed with two – in the middle of the game.

    The cleanup hitter, who is not always the cleanup hitter, got the key hit that his manager predicted before the game.

    And the reliever who started Game 1 and was overthrown in a loss?

    All Tyler Holton did was make the save and struck out Austin Hedges to end the game. Repayment? No. These Tigers don’t believe in such things. They believe in faith, and perhaps fate, and can you blame them?

    AJ Hinch, the maestro of Tigers playoff magic

    AJ Hinch never loses confidence. Mainly because he is a seeker and reminds everyone that he is a baseball expert. Just about everything the Tigers manager does these days is paying off.

    He warned of “chaos” before the postseason, and he got it again. He said he would fill his lineup card based on math, matchups and a touch of instinct, and not worry about anyone getting in his feelings.

    Forget roles and labels, he keeps telling us, these are the playoffs, and these are the Tigers – your Tigers. Rolling out those rookies and Triple-A call-ups, afterthoughts on trades and a few veterans, though calling anyone a vet on this club is relative.

    The Tigers are young and fearless and growing in confidence every day. They are comfortable hitting and throwing anywhere and anytime of the game. If the manager thinks the team’s best hitter should be brought in in the bottom of the fifth for a better matchup, go to Justyn-Henry Malloy.

    You can imagine Kerry Carpenter saying that when Hinch Malloy pinch-hit for him with a runner on first and an out. Because he has said similar things before when asked about such scenarios.

    Here was the Game 2 hero — well, along with pitching ace Tarik Skubal — who had blasted his way into Detroit sports history with a go-ahead home run Monday in Cleveland, and took a seat in the dugout Wednesday so it team could play the match. percentages.

    That’s part of the magic too.

    How else can you explain what keeps happening?

    Grain? Determination? Imperturbability?

    Sure, why not? The properties are visible to everyone.

    But when Cleveland put runners on first and second base and the Tigers went to the bullpen for the third time in an inning — Beau Brieske to Sean Guenther to Will Vest — and the No. 2 hitter hit a rising line drive to third base?

    Of course, Matt Vierling would time his jump at third base perfectly to get the screamer and end the threat. And of course, Vierling would jump again, this time running to the dugout, pumping his fist and shouting the words the whole city wanted to shout:

    “Let’s (expletive) go!!!”

    Tigers create a different kind of chaos

    You get the idea. And if you’re late to the party, you’re not alone. The brigade grows with the game, one clutch maneuver, one clutch hit, one clutch pitch at a time.

    That nominal cleaning lady?

    That would be Riley Greene, he of the liquid swing, a tantalizing talent who had struggled in the playoffs but who chatted cheerfully about the team and his teammates before the game, without giving any indication that he was feeling pressure.

    So when he got to second with Parker Meadows and had a chance to take a lead in the first inning, the all-star calmly hit a blind single up the middle.

    Five innings later, his closest clubhousemate and fellow franchise saver, Spencer Torkelson, also drove in his first run. The maligned first baseman with the weight of depth expectations finally got a hit.

    Torkelson, who had gone 0-fer in 12 at-bats in the postseason, ripped a 95-mph fastball down the line toward the left-field wall and drove in Colt Keith. He raised his arm when he came in second. Relief, no doubt. But ask him and he’ll tell you he felt more elation.

    Keith, by the way, is also an unflappable newcomer on a team full of them, doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Like Keider Montero, who got the start and needed six pitches to get three outs.

    And Brant Hurter, who followed Montero and threw 3⅓ innings, who gave way to Brieske, who gave way to Guenther, who gave way to Vest, who gave way to Holton.

    Do you have that?

    Good. Because these Tigers seem to get it, and keep giving it.

    Pitching chaos?

    Certainly.

    Still, that doesn’t reflect what’s happening with our baseball team right now. How about calling it a play-off chaosat?

    Contact Shawn Windsor: [email protected]. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like