Detroit Tigers Can Continue to Thrive in Postseason With Great Bullpen
The Detroit Tigers were able to keep their magical run alive with a 5-2 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 2 of their Wild Card Series.
After winning the first two games of the series, the Tigers are off to the next round to face the Cleveland Guardians, who were the No.2 seed in the American League.
Games 1 and 2 were fairly different for Detroit, as they went about their strategy in very different ways. In Game 1, the Tigers leaned on their ace, Tarik Skubal, to provide them with a great start. Skubal did just that as he shut down the Astros’ offense for the most part.
In his first career start, Skubal went six innings, allowing just four hits and no runs before turning it over to the bullpen. The great start by Skubal outmatched his counterpart, Framber Valdez of Houston, as the soon-to-be American League Cy Young didn’t show any nervousness in his first career postseason start.
After leaning on their ace in Game 1, A.J. Hinch made no bones about the strategy for Game 2 and that was to throw the kitchen sink at the Astros. In the victory, Detroit used seven different pitchers to get the job done, and not one of them pitched two innings.
It was a truly well managed game by Hinch against his former team, as the win helped take away the advantage of the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Divisional Series.
Against Houston, Tyler Holton got the ball to start the game after recording a hold in Game 1. Following Holton was Brenan Hanifee, Brant Hurter, and Beau Brieske. All three of those pitchers went 1.2 innings, as they ate up the bulk of the work in the middle innings.
If there was a problem for the Tigers in Game 2, it was the performance of Jackson Jobe. While he did allow two runs, it was a tad misleading, as the Astros didn’t exactly hit the ball hard off him.
Sean Guenther came in after Jobe to end up getting the win, as he pitched 1.2 innings, and Will Vest notched the save. Hinch elected not to use Jason Foley in the ninth inning after he had some struggles in Game 1, as with a three-run lead, Vest handled Houston on just seven pitches.
As the Tigers get ready for the Guardians, they will likely do things similar to what we saw in Game 2 against the Astros with their bullpen. If they get great starts from Skubal, Hinch can really utilize a talented bullpen to get wins in the postseason.
