Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers Combine to Make Wild Pitching History on Wednesday

Both teams won thanks to an odd, but effective, pitching strategy.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Keider Montero (54) throws against Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Game 3 of ALDS at Comerica Park in Detroit on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-0 on Wednesday afternoon in Detroit. With the win, the Tigers are now up 2-1 in the best-of-five American League Division Series. They are one win away from a trip to the ALCS.

Over in the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 8-0 at Petco Park. They have evened up the National League Division Series at 2-2 and will play a Game 5 against the Padres on Friday night in Los Angeles.

The two winning teams combined to make some very interesting baseball history, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

entering today, the fewest outs by a starter in a team shutout in postseason history was 5, by SD in 2020 NLWCS G3

TODAY…LAD got 4 outs from their starter, DET got 3 — and both teams threw shutouts

Both the Tigers and Dodgers have been relegated to using "Openers," due to injuries and overall pitching concerns. In the case of the Tigers, they were never a very deep staff. But when they traded Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline and demoted Kenta Maeda to the bullpen, they became even less deep. They've been using this bullpen strategy for the last two months, clearly to effectiveness.

They started Keider Montero on Wednesday, letting him get three outs. In total, they used six pitchers in the win.

The Dodgers are forced to use a bullpen game because of a rampant amount of injuries to their staff. They started Ryan Brasier, letting him get four outs, before using seven other pitchers.

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