With the National League Division Series balanced side by side with one win and one loss, the American League seems to be in the same pattern. The Detroit Tigers brought the game series back to square one by breaking down Emmanuel Clase, the “special finish.”
Detroit won 3-0 against the Cleveland Guardians in the 2024 Major League Postseason at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio, USA on the 8th (Korea time).
▲ starting lineup
Detroit: Justin Henry-Molloy (designated hitter) – Matt Bierling (third baseman) – Andy Ibanez (second baseman) – Riley Green (left fielder) – Wensil Perez (right fielder) – Spencer Tokelson (first baseman) – Parker Meadows (centre) – Jake Rogers (catcher) – Trey Sweeney (striker), starting pitcher Tarik Skubal.
Cleveland: Steven Kwan (left fielder)-David Fry (designated hitter)-Hose Ramirez (third baseman) -Rain Thomas (center fielder)-Josh Naylor (first baseman)-Jokensi Noel (right fielder)-Andres Jimenez (second baseman)-Austin Hedges (catcher)-Brian Locchio (striker), starting pitcher Matthew Boyd.
The first player who laughed in Game 1 of the Division Series on Thursday was Cleveland. Cleveland won the game by scoring five points at the start of the game, then blocked Detroit’s batters with a solid mound, winning the game 7-0. However, the outcome of Game 2 was completely reversed.
The beginning of the game was a complete pitching competition. The Cleveland starter Matthew Boyd, who pitched first, pitched every inning from the first to the fourth inning, pitched a runner, but tied the Detroit lineup without allowing a run. Notably, he pitched four scoreless innings, completely overcoming the loss crisis that came when he allowed a hit to Justin Henry-Molloy and a walk to Matt Bearling in the third inning, and a double to leadoff hitter Wensil Perez in the fourth inning.
The same was true of Detroit with “Ace” Tarik Skubal. Skubal started with two strikeouts from the start of the first inning, and produced “KKK” innings in the third inning to display perfect pitching in four innings. He allowed Josh Naylor to double his first hit in the bottom of the fifth inning with no runners on one out, causing a crisis on the first and second bases, but in the most important situation, he gave Andres Jimenez a double play to prevent the first crisis from being scoreless.
Scubal faced a crisis of losing runs for two consecutive innings after a double by Brian Lockio and a hit by Stephen Kwan after one out in the sixth inning, but he also silenced Cleveland’s batters with a double play through his crisis management ability, and continued the tight flow of pitching by pitching scoreless with two ground balls and one fly ball in the seventh inning, completing a quality start+ (less than three earned runs in seven innings) with three hits and eight strikeouts in seven innings.
It was in the ninth inning that the balance of the game was lost. In the top of the ninth inning, Cleveland Indians took the mound in 75 games (74 ⅓ innings) with a record of 4 wins, 2 losses, 47 saves and an ERA of 0.61 in this season, and deployed Emmanuel Clase, who became the “save king” of the American League for the third consecutive year, which led to their defeat. It was their special finish that they believed in.
In the top of the ninth inning, first batter Spencer Tokelson struck out and Parker Meadows retired with a fly ball to the first base, while Detroit took the last chance of the regular inning as Jake Rogers hit a 99.7-mile (about 160.5 kilometers) cutter on Class’s second pitch. Since then, Trey Sweeney has been on base with consecutive hits, and Kerry Carpenter, who has been in the game since the eighth inning, has shown his bat out of hand as 93.7 miles (about 150.8 kilometers) of the sixth slider thrown by Clase in 3B-2S rushed to the middle of the Strstrike Zone.
Carpenter’s hit was so good that he could feel it was a home run at the same time as he left the bat, and the hit, which stretched at a speed of 110.8 miles (178.3 kilometers), did not return after crossing the right fence. It was a moment when the balance, which was rarely broken, collapsed. After Carpenter’s home run, he failed to score an additional point, but Detroit also hit a hit and brought down Clase, causing “humiliating.”
Detroit, which took the lead, deployed Bob Briskie in the bottom of the ninth inning to save two strikeouts against the lineup that led to Brian Locchio-Steven Kwan-David Fry and win the second game. 먹튀검증
