While there have been peeps from the Cleveland area about their excellent closer Emmanuel Claas, the presumptive American League Cy Young winner for the 2024 season is Tigers southpaw Tarik Skubal. He gave Guardians fans a front-row seat to witness his dominance firsthand in Game 2 of the ALDS, which ended in a 3-0 Tigers victory.
However, Skubal wasn’t even the biggest story on Monday. The honor there went to Kerry Carpenter, who hit a three-run home run with — coincidentally — Klass.
Carpenter did not start the game. He struck out in the eighth inning when the Tigers were finally facing the right-hander in a spot where they were OK with replacing starters. As you can see, he is one of the most divisive players in baseball. Take a look:
Carpenter vs. LHP: .107/.194/.214
Carpenter vs. RHP: .305/.363/.631
OK. He’s a world-breaker against right-wingers, and he certainly put a damper on the world of Cleveland-area sports fans on Monday.
Incidentally, Clase allowed just two home runs in 74 1/3 innings during the regular season.
However, there’s no reason to beat around the bush here: While Carpenter has been called a hero and rightly so, Skubal was the main reason the Tigers won this game. He pitched a perfect game in the fifth inning, giving the Guardians an early lead. He struck out seven to four innings and drew the outside corner and downfield with relative ease. He has other equipment for him in big spots and pitches multiple times, making hard-to-handle hitters like Stephen Cowan and Jose Ramirez look ridiculous.
Last line: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K.
Skubal ran into trouble in the fifth and sixth innings, but was able to make double plays to get out of it.
He just needed a little help from his friends in case he attacked in this situation. So he put them on his back while he was on the hill. Can’t they muster the support of just one?
Through 8 2/3 innings, the answer was no. But then Jake Rogers picked the right side hard against Klaas. Trey Swinney singled to the gap in right-center, enough that Rogers – the catcher – was able to get to third base and make the threat look more real. Then Carpenter brought on the Thunder.
The Tigers felt they were impossible to kill down the stretch. They were between 33 and 16 years old after August 4 with many returning. The Astros had not lost in the ALCS playoffs in nearly a decade before the Tigers shut them out in two games — including an eighth-inning comeback in Game 2 to ice the series.
Even the play late in this one that didn’t go their way didn’t hinder them. Wencell Pérez hit what looked like a go-ahead single, only to be sandwiched by Guardians left fielder Stephen Cowan. The slow motion replays weren’t very helpful. Sure, it looked like the ball jumped a little and many would say it bounced off the ground, but there was no camera angle that could conclusively show us that the ball hit the ground. This certainly seems to happen, but you never see it happen.
It doesn’t matter. Winners make their breaks and the Tigers prevailed even after this play. They were winners for two months. Set up another one, mostly thanks to Skubal with Carpenter playing the late game hero.
And now, after another win that seemed improbable, they head to Detroit with the ALDS tied, one game apiece.