Detroit Tigers Advance to ALDS for First Time Since 2014 With Wild Card Victory
The Detroit Tigers did the improbable as they swept the Houston Astros in just two games for a Wild Card round victory in a 5-2 game on Wednesday afternoon.
Staff ace Tarik Skubal took care of business in the first game of the series with a gem of an outing that put immense pressure on the Astros in their own park.
With Skubal not available, though, manager A.J. Hinch turned to his "pitching chaos" strategy of a bullpen game for Game 2.
Houston's normally high-powered offense still wasn't able to get anything going for much of the contest. The first three batters in the Astros' lineup went 0-for-9 on the day, only reaching base because of errors and walks.
Parker Meadows opened the scoring with a crucial solo shot in the top of the sixth inning that gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
Going into the bottom of the seventh inning, Detroit turned to the rookie Jackson Jobe for his postseason debut in a crucial moment.
It went about as poorly as they could have possibly imagined, and although it was fairly unlucky, Jobe gave up two runs that breathed life into Houston for the first time all series.
Just a half inning later, though, Andy Ibanez delivered a dagger of a double that gave Detroit the 5-2 lead that would go on to give them the victory.
Sean Guenther and Will Vest came together to pitch 2.2 perfect innings to shut the Astros down and secure the unlikely series victory.
"You know we're gonna keep playing and keep fighting for all 27 outs," said Hinch on the broadcast after the win. "One thing I know is that this team is very gritty."
Hinch, ironically, became the manager to end the streak of seven straight ALCS appearances for Houston after being the one to start it.
"Isn't baseball great?" said Hinch when asked about beating the Astros. "It's unbelievable."
Unbelievable is certainly a great word to describe the past few months of Detroit baseball.
Back in August, the Tigers had less than a 1% chance to make it into the postseason.
Now, they are on their way to the ALDS for the first time since 2014, and have advanced in the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
Now, all their attention will get turned toward the high-powered offense of the Cleveland Guardians.
Detroit was 6-7 during the regular season against the Guardians, meaning this could realistically be a close series.
That matchup will get underway on Saturday afternoon.
