Clase and Co. seal ALDS win in latest Guardians bullpen gem

CLEVELAND -- Emmanuel Clase kept the receipts.

The Guardians’ All-Star closer had seethed at himself in the days after surrendering a decisive homer to red-hot Kerry Carpenter in Game 2 of this American League Division Series vs. the Tigers -- and he allowed all the outside noise in, leveraging it as motivation rather than letting it bring him down.

“People were saying, 'Oh, he's my daddy,' and all that,” Clase said through an interpreter. “But for me, [the homer] wasn't my best pitch. For me, today was an opportunity that I had more to show, and that's the real Emmanuel Clase.”

In a tense rematch with Carpenter in Game 5 on Saturday, Clase blew a 100.5 mph cutter by Detroit’s lefty-hitting slugger for an empathic strikeout that ended the top of the eighth inning and stranded a runner on second base. After shouting in celebration, Clase stared down Carpenter before receding to the home dugout at Progressive Field.

“While he was on deck, I kept staring at him because that was my moment,” Clase said. “And we made it even.”

Clase was the caboose in Cleveland’s 7-3, ALDS-clinching win, the last among eight arms that Guards manager Stephen Vogt deployed in an all-hands-on-deck effort with elimination on the line. Clase, the favorite for the Mariano Rivera AL Reliever of the Year Award, recorded the final six outs, tying his longest outing of his combined 78 across the regular season and playoffs, on Aug. 20.

His longevity in the winner-take-all finale was by design. For a Cleveland club that’s leaned heavily on a bullpen that, statistically, was MLB’s best in 2024, Clase has been the linchpin. But the totality of the group’s efforts -- along with a punctuating grand slam from Lane Thomas that handed the bullpen its final lead -- were just as vital to victory.

“We had a little bit of a script, but it went pretty close,” Vogt said. “There were a couple times that we had to kind of go off the script, but at the same time it was watching the game, seeing what the game is telling us to do. … We've won with our bullpen all year, and that's been who we are.”

First up was Cade Smith, who took over in just the third inning after two scoreless frames from starter Matthew Boyd. Smith, who quietly should contend for the AL Rookie of the Year Award, registered five outs, including three via K. He finished the series with 12 strikeouts, the most by any reliever in a single Division Series in AL/NL history.

“I had an idea that it could be early,” said Smith, who pitched in all five games of this ALDS. “We've seen that all series that we were ready to go to the bullpen early. ... That’s what we were prepared for down there, and it could’ve been anybody.”

Next was Erik Sabrowski, also a rookie and a lefty specialist, who walked Parker Meadows in a full count before inducing an inning-ending groundout to strand two and preserve a scoreless tie in the fourth.

Then came Andrew Walters, who figured to pitch in leverage on Saturday and who also had perhaps the Guards’ biggest hiccup. Struggling to find the strike zone, Walters walked Trey Sweeney on five pitches then faced a hobbling Carpenter off the bench, who, despite tweaking his left hamstring in Game 4, stayed hot by ripping an RBI single into the right-center gap that broke the scoreless tie.

Yet once Thomas responded -- off AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal, to boot -- the confidence shifted in Cleveland’s favor, especially among its bullpen, even as the Tigers plated one run apiece off Tim Herrin and Hunter Gaddis. Eli Morgan was the final bridge to Clase, and highlighted his outing with a punchout to freeze Spencer Torkelson and end the top of the seventh. After Morgan walked the first batter he faced in the eighth, Clase took the mound and found redemption.

“Whenever they give me that lead,” Clase said, “I feel 100 percent confident that they trust me I'm going to respond the way I always have.”

The Guardians' bullpen led MLB with a 2.57 ERA, 7.8 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, a .604 OPS against and a 1.05 WHIP. It’s what got them here -- and that won’t change when they take on the Yankees in the AL Championship Series, beginning on Monday in the Bronx.

“I think the best thing that we do is that we plan the game every night, and we've done this all year long,” Vogt said. “We plan the game. Obviously, there are nights where you have to rip it up, but we've talked through exactly what we want to do and when.”