Gritty Tigers' improbable run ends in ALDS with Game 5 loss

CLEVELAND -- The last time Tarik Skubal allowed multiple runs in a game, the Tigers were in Oakland on Sept. 6, still fighting to stay over .500. Skubal gave up two runs to the A’s in a wild extra-inning affair, and Detroit fell back to break-even.

The last time Skubal gave up a home run, Colorado’s Jordan Beck got him on a drive to left at Comerica Park on Sept. 12, the only run Skubal allowed in a loss that dropped Detroit 3 1/2 games back in the AL Wild Card race.

The last time Skubal allowed a run of any sort, Yuli Gurriel hit a first-inning RBI single off of him on Sept. 18 in Kansas City, a game that saw the Royals tax him for 95 pitches over five innings but Detroit still get a win to close the Wild Card gap a little more.

As Guardians outfielder Lane Thomas stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning Saturday, Skubal had a 28-inning scoreless streak that had just ended and a 32-inning homerless streak still going. In a Tigers late-season run that has thrived on matchups, Detroit wouldn’t have wanted anyone else. They would’ve gladly taken it in early August, in mid-September and especially Saturday.

“He could’ve given up 100 today, and I still would take him over anybody,” catcher Jake Rogers said.

It wasn’t just a snapshot of how dominant Skubal has been, but how far the Tigers came to get here. And as Thomas sent Skubal’s first-pitch fastball deep to left for a go-ahead grand slam, this was the matchup on which Game 5 of the AL Division Series turned, though it was far from the only reason the Tigers’ incredible postseason run ended in a 7-3 defeat.

“The moment was the moment,” Skubal told reporters afterward. “In that moment, you’re thinking about executing a pitch, and I didn’t do that.”

This is the tough part of the postseason experience that the young, largely unseasoned Tigers gained in abundance for two rounds and seven thrilling games.

“I have a heartbroken team for all the right reasons,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I mean, we left everything we could on the field against a really good team, and we didn't want the season to end as abruptly as it did.

“I thanked them for everything that they're about. I'm really proud to be the manager and represent them so many days in front of the camera, in front of the media, [and I] get to run the team on the field because of who they are and what they're about. And I let them know, there's only one team that doesn't have this pit in your stomach at the end of the year, and we were the next one to go through it.”

It was Detroit’s best against Cleveland’s best, which gave the Tigers some solace in an emotional clubhouse afterward. But more than anything, the chance to reflect on what they had done over the last couple of months -- the kind of reflection they’d largely avoided as it happened -- helped them smile through the tears.

“I’m super proud of this group,” Riley Greene said. “No one thought we would be here besides us, if you really think about it. It’s going to hurt for a little bit, but when it stops hurting -- maybe in a week, maybe a month, I don’t know -- super proud.”

For half an inning, Kerry Carpenter -- hobbled by a left hamstring he injured in Game 4 -- was poised to be the Tigers’ latest hero, stepping off the bench to lace a line drive off the right-field wall to score Trey Sweeney from first base and break a scoreless duel in the top of the fifth.

Carpenter, whose three-run homer was all Detroit needed in Skubal’s previous start this series in Game 2, could only hobble to first base. But in a series that had seen the Tigers struggle to convert scoring opportunities since Game 4, he had done his job. It wasn’t much, but if anyone could carry it, Skubal was the guy, having held Cleveland to two singles over the first four innings and five hits over 11 scoreless innings for the series.

The Guardians pieced together a rally to set up the big swing. Andrés Giménez and Steven Kwan won lefty-lefty matchups, sitting on fastballs to slash opposite-field singles. David Fry’s infield grounder slowed as Skubal and Colt Keith gave chase, setting up a bases-loaded duel between Skubal and fellow All-Star José Ramírez.

“We just talked about being on the heater,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He's got two really good fastballs, and he threw them a lot to us over the last start, starting the regular season and all that. So we just talked to our guys about being on the fastball, and we were.”

Ramírez just missed a grand slam, sending Skubal’s 97 mph sinker down the right-field line but just foul. Skubal tried to bust Ramírez inside with his next pitch, but the 99.9 mph fastball hit Ramírez on the forearm, ending Skubal’s scoreless streak, tying the game and keeping the bases loaded for Thomas.

Thomas’ Statcast-projected 396-foot drive off Skubal’s 97 mph sinker was the first grand slam of Skubal’s professional career, Major or Minor Leagues. It was just Skubal's 18th Major League plate appearance with the bases loaded.

“Lane was a pain in my butt this series,” Rogers said. “It was supposed to be sinker in, and it kind of leaked over the plate a little bit, and Lane did what he was supposed to.”

The five runs off Skubal tied his season high. He needed just nine pitches to retire his final five batters from there, exiting after six innings to hugs in the Tigers’ dugout.

“Obviously, he gave everything that he could and more,” Hinch said. “And today wasn't his fault. I mean, he was in complete control of the game, and we wish we would have staked some runs for him to give him a little bit of breathing room, and it was a big blow.

“This one is going to eat at him through the entire offseason because of what was at stake. But give me that guy again in a playoff series, in a playoff-deciding game.”

Detroit had chances to answer the Guardians’ rally. But while they chipped away -- Spencer Torkelson doubling and scoring on Rogers’ two-out single in the sixth and Keith doubling home Greene in the seventh -- they couldn’t get the bigger inning they needed.

While the Guardians celebrated on the field in front of a raucous sellout crowd, the Tigers soaked it in.

“I watched it,” said Parker Meadows, who reached base safely four times off four pitchers and tied Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer’s franchise record with hits in seven consecutive games to begin his postseason career. “It hurts, but it’s part of the game. We’re all going to look back and be happy with how far we came. We proved a lot of people wrong.”