SI

SI:AM | Tigers Make Emmanuel Clase Look Mortal

And now the series is going back to Detroit tied at one game apiece.

Dan Gartland

Carpenter’s (right) ninth inning blast tied the ALDS at 1–1.
Carpenter’s (right) ninth inning blast tied the ALDS at 1–1. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. This stat from baseball writer Sam Miller really drove home how tough it is to be a shutdown reliever in the playoffs.

In today’s SI:AM:

🐅 Carpenter goes yard
💣 Rodón combusts
🪓 Saleh axed

Another October classic

The Cleveland Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase is without a doubt the best closer in MLB. But in Game 2 of the ALDS on Monday, the Detroit Tigers got the better of him and evened the series at one game apiece.

Clase has led the American League in saves in each of the past three seasons and also led the majors in that category in 2022 and ’23. This year, he had a career high 47 saves, giving him three straight seasons with at least 40 saves. He’s the first pitcher since Heath Bell (2009–11) to do that.

This was the best season of Clase’s already impressive career. While he had effectively closed out games in previous years, he wasn’t entirely unhittable. Last year, he allowed 26 earned runs, which was good enough for a respectable 3.22 ERA. This year, though, as soon as Clase came out of the bullpen, the game was as good as over. He converted 94% of his save opportunities and allowed just five earned runs. His ERA was a miniscule 0.61. He became just the fourth pitcher in MLB history to record a season with at least 40 saves and five or fewer earned runs.

Clase’s dominance this year makes what happened on Monday afternoon all the more shocking. Neither offense was able to get anything going in the first eight innings. Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal started for Detroit and allowed just three hits over seven scoreless innings. Cleveland starter Matthew Boyd only went 4 2/3 innings but also did not allow a run. Guardians relievers Cade Smith, Tim Herrin and Hunter Gaddis combined to keep the game scoreless. But Gaddis got into a bit of trouble in the eighth, allowing a one-out double to Matt Vierling. He struck out the next batter, Colt Keith, and then issued an intentional walk to Riley Greene, bringing up Wenceel Pérez. That’s when Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt called on Clase.

Pérez very nearly drove in the first run of the game, slicing a liner into left field that would have scored at least one run if not for an amazing play by Steven Kwan.

Clase came back out for the ninth, which was clearly always the plan but is still unusual for him. He only pitched more than one inning once this season—in an extra-innings win over the New York Yankees on Aug. 20 when he kept the game tied in the ninth and stayed in to pitch the 10th. He hadn’t entered a game at home in the eighth inning since the 2022 playoffs. Still, the inning started smoothly enough. He struck out Spencer Torkelson and got Parker Meadows to pop out weakly to first. But then he allowed back-to-back singles to Jake Rogers and Trey Sweeney, giving the Tigers runners at the corners.

What happened next was truly shocking. Kerry Carpenter turned on a slider from Clase and pulled it into the stands in right for a three-run homer. It was just the third homer Clase allowed this year. The others were by Jake Burger on June 9 and Andrew McCutchen on Aug. 30. Both were solo shots in games where Cleveland was leading by multiple runs. Both of them were by righthanded batters, too, making Carpenter the first lefty to homer against Clase since Ozzie Albies in July of last year.

It’s extremely rare for Clase to give up a home run, and it’s especially rare for a hitter to do anything against his nasty slider. This year, Clase threw 202 sliders. Hitters swung and missed at 35.5% of them and only got nine hits: eight singles and a double. Only two batters have ever hit a homer on a slider from Clase, both of them in 2022.

It’s easy to recognize Carpenter’s home run as one of the most significant moments in the last decade of Tigers history. It won a game in a playoff series against a division rival in a season in which the team needed a miraculous late-season push to snap a long postseason drought. The surface-level context makes it an unforgettable moment. But the additional context of it coming against a pitcher as dominant as Clase in a season in which he has been nearly unhittable on a pitch that has flummoxed hitters for years makes it even more incredible than it initially seemed.

Carlos Rodón gave up four runs on seven hits in New York’s Game 2 loss vs. Kansas City on Monday.
Rodón gave up four runs on seven hits in New York’s Game 2 loss vs. Kansas City on Monday. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

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5. Bryan Cook’s one-handed catch on this interception.
4. Jon Berti’s diving catch to start a double play in his first career game at first base.
3. Travis Kelce’s improvised decision to pitch the ball to a teammate after a catch.
2. 324-pound Khalen Saunders’s surprisingly long interception return after picking off Patrick Mahomes in the end zone. Coincidentally, Saunders’s brother is one of Taylor Swift’s backup dancers.
1. The ump cam view of Salvador Pérez’s game-tying home run.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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