By: Christian Pagan

With an electric sold out crowd at Progressive Field, the Cleveland Guardians defeated the Detroit Tigers 7-3 in Game 5 of the ALDS. The Guardians will face the New York Yankees in the ALCS, in a best of seven series. 

The Detroit Tigers went up 2-1 in the ALDS, but couldn’t finish the series. The Guardians will play in the ALCS for the first time since 2016.

With Tigers ace Tarik Skubal on the mound, the Guardians didn’t shy away from the occasion, knocking five runs off of him.

The Guardians started Matthew Boyd, but only pitched two innings, striking out five and giving up one hit. 

With an anxious crowd, the first four innings were quiet, as expected. Not much offense happened for both teams. 

The fifth inning is where things began to get interesting and enjoyable. With Guardians skipper Steven Vogt taking Boyd out in the second inning, it essentially turned into a bullpen game. 

Reliever Andrew Walters would enter the game for the Guardians and this is when Kerry Carpenter knocked in a run for the Tigers, ending the deadlock and putting Detroit up 1-0. Carpenter hit the go-ahead three-run homer in game two. 

With Skubal still on the mind, things looked concerning for Cleveland, however, Cleveland string together a few hits to get the bases loaded with one out. Guardians star 3B Jose Ramirez came up to the plate, with the bases loaded, one out, with his team down a run. Ramirez vs Skubal, star vs star.

On the first pitch, Skubal hit Ramirez with an inside fastball, scoring a run and tying the game. Next up, Lane Thomas sent a grand slam off of Skubal to left center to put the Guardians up 5-1, sending Progressive Field into a frenzy. 

Skubal pitched 28.2 consecutive scoreless innings up until that fifth inning, where he gave up five runs. 

The Tigers would respond with a run in the sixth and seventh inning, with RBIs coming from Cole Keith and Jake Rogers, cutting the deficit to 5-3.

Lane Thomas would respond again in the bottom half of the seventh with an infield single to put the Guards up 6-3. Guardians SS Brayan Rocchio would add another insurance run in the bottom of the eight to put Cleveland up 7-3.

Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase would come on in the 8th for a two inning save. Clase had one multi-inning appearance in the regular season, but had three in this series vs Detroit. 

The Guardians had eight different pitchers make appearances today, who collectively struck out 16 batters. The offense had 11 hits as a team. Steven Kwan went 3/5, and tied Kenny Lofton’s franchise record for the longest postseason hitting streak, at 10 games. Andres Gimenez and Brayan Rocchio, Cleveland’s 8 and 9 hole hitters, combined for four hits. 

Pitching:

CLE – Matthew Boyd: 2.0 IPs, 1H, 5Ks, (33 Pitches)

CLE – Emmanuel Clase: 2 IPs, 0H, 2Ks, S (2), (24 Pitches)

DET – Tarik Skubal: 6 IPs, 6H, 5 ERs, 6Ks, L (1-1), (84 Pitches)

DET – Tyler Holton: 1.1 IP, 2H, 1 ER, 3Ks, (29 Pitches)

Hitting:

CLE – Steven Kwan: 3/5, (.524 Average)

CLE –  Lane Thomas: 2/4, 5 RBIs, GS (2)

DET – Kerry Carpenter: 1/3, RBI, 2Ks

DET – Spencer Torkelson: 2/4, 2 Ks

The Guardians will take on the Yankees in the ALCS, with the winner going to the World Series. The last time these two teams met in the postseason, the Yankees won in five in the 2022 ALDS. 

The Guardians have lost three straight postseason series to the Yankees, with the last series win coming back in the 2007 ALDS, where they defeated New York in four games. 

This is the fourth postseason series between these teams since 2017. Game 1 of the ALCS will be on Monday (10/14), 7:37PM, on TBS, at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

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