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After fighting just to keep their postseason hopes alive, the Tigers kick off the wild-card round against a familiar foe in the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday afternoon.
The story of this matchup is well known. After getting hot last season to sneak into the postseason, the Tigers went cold to end this September, allowing the Guardians to overcome a 14.5-game deficit to take the AL Central crown. That included a pivotal stretch during the month where the Tigers went 1-5 against the Guardians.
With this late-season collapse, the Tigers went from World Series contenders to possibly not even making it out of the opening round. But Detroit has shown they can win on the road in October, doing that last year in a two-game AL Wild Card sweep of the Houston Astros before falling to the Guardians in five games of the ALDS.
The Tigers call on ace Tarik Skubal for this important Game 1, though the Tigers have dropped their last two games against the Guardians in which Skubal started. Cleveland calls on Gavin Williams, who finished the regular season with a 12-5 record. These two pitchers dueled just five days ago, when the Guardians won, 5-2.
Follow along here for live updates from Detroit News contributor Kameron Goodwill.
Tigers vs. Guardians
What: American League wild-card series
Format: Best-of-three; all games in Cleveland
First pitch: 1:08 p.m. Tuesday, Progressive Field, Cleveland
TV/radio: ESPN/97.1
Starting pitchers: Tigers’ Tarik Skubal vs. Guardians’ Gavin Williams