The Tigers had a shot to leave Cleveland with a split, and instead they got the same gut punch they’d been dealing with all weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, Detroit fell 3-2 in ten innings as the Guardians completed their third straight walk-off win. In each of the three games, Cleveland never once took a lead before the final swing.
Detroit struck first and did it fast. Hao-Yu Lee worked a walk, Colt Keith dropped in a bloop single, and Riley Greene kept swinging a hot bat by ripping a double that scored both runners in the opening inning. That was all the offense the Tigers could muster.
Cleveland answered right away. Steven Kwan doubled, Travis Bazzana followed with another double, and after a groundout Jackson Jobe briefly lost the zone, walking two batters on eight pitches to load the bases. He recovered enough to strike out Angel Genao and then got Patrick Bailey to ground out and escape the inning with the game still in front of him.
Jobe and Gavin Williams settled in after that first frame, and both pitchers started piling up strikeouts. Greene added another loud hit in the third, lining his twenty-ninth double off the center-field wall, but Dillon Dingler just missed getting it out of the park later in the inning, leaving Greene stranded.
Jobe’s best stretch came after those shaky opening moments. Once he worked through the first-inning jam, he retired 12 Guardians in a row before Brayan Rocchio finally broke through with a solo homer in the fifth to tie it 2-2. Kwan doubled again, but Jobe punched out Jo Adell to end the inning and finish his day at 5 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.
Williams was just as sharp in his own way, fanning 11 Tigers. The only damage he took came in the first, when Greene’s double plated both runs. From there, the Tigers never found another answer.
The bullpen traded zeroes after that. Tyler Holton came in for the sixth, hit the leadoff batter, then induced an inning-ending double play.
Drew Sommers, who had allowed Rocchio’s game-winning homer on Friday, worked the seventh and got Rocchio to roll over for the final out. He stayed on into the eighth, where Bazzana reached on an infield single before being thrown out trying to steal second.
Tyler Kinley then came in and got a big short-hop play from John Peck on a 108-mph bouncer off Jo Adell’s bat to keep the game tied.
Cade Smith handled the ninth for Cleveland and retired the Tigers in order. Kenley Jansen answered for Detroit in the bottom half and made quick work of the Guardians, getting a foulout to the catcher, a popout to shortstop and a comebacker to send the game to the 10th.
From there, the Guardians finished it. Smith struck out the side in the top of the tenth with Brett Callahan on second.
In the bottom half, Kyle Finnegan entered with Angel Genao already at second, and Patrick Bailey singled to center to move the winning run to third. Daniel Schneeman then singled to right, scoring Genao for the 3-2 walk-off.
Final score: Guardians 3, Tigers 2
Notes and Remembrances
It was nice to see Riley Greene smack a couple of home runs on Saturday. Those were his first homers since a solo dinger in Seattle on August 4.
Someone on a radio broadcast recently mentioned that Kevin McGonigle has played in more games this season than he ever has a professional (139 played through today). Perhaps that’s one reason he’s been slumping lately; from mid-August through the doubleheader loss on Friday he was 15-for-77 (.195 batting average) with a sub-.600 OPS.
I don’t like air shows, for a variety of reasons.
Cade Smith was the second Canadian pitcher for the Guardians of the day. Edmontonian Erik Sabrowski, who pitched the seventh, was the first.
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