Wow. No words for what I just witnessed.
Let’s start with Bibee.
He was a little shaky toward the end, but overall was fine. You’d have liked to see him go more than 4.2 innings — all things considered — but it was a quality outing. The offense certainly did not help him at all. The bullpen was dynamite today, working out of more jams than I can count. Sabrowski, Gaddis, Herrin, Junis, and Cade gave you 4.1 innings of scoreless relief.
Maybe I’ve been asleep at the wheel these last two seasons, but I’ve never seen him have that kind of fire. Really fun to watch.
Valera started the fireworks off in the 1st with a solo shot to right-center field.
Two batters later, Kyle Manzardo barreled a ball to almost the exact same spot that got caught at the wall. Batted balls with the same exit velocity and launch angle as Kyle’s went 14 feet farther than his did. Really, really unlucky wind influence on that. Guards should’ve been up 2-0 off the rip.
DeLauter made a bad error in the 1st, but was clean in the field after that.
The Tigers scored in the 4th on a very strange play. Tigers had the bases loaded with 2 outs, and Javy Baez hit a grounder up the middle to center. One run scored. DeLauter fielded the ball and threw to third. The runner who was on second (Dingler) was on his way home while the throw was in the air. The throw got to third (McKinstry the runner), beat McKinstry at third, and got him out before the go-ahead run touched home.
Here’s the video in case I didn’t explain it well.
Dynamite play from both Jose (applying the tag) and DeLauter (rocketing that throw, after hustling toward the grounder, to third). Per Tim Stebbins, the throw clocked in at 92 mph.
Speaking of DeLauter, he had three awesome, big-league at-bats today. 8-pitch walk in his first AB. 8-pitch AB ending in an 100mph groundout (against a pretty tough LHP in Tyler Holton), and then an 111mph rocket shot that just so happened to find the glove of the Tigers’ centerfielder. About as good of a hitless debut as you could ask for. He just might be the real deal. Oh, and he hadn’t played in a professional baseball game in over two months. Oh, and he hadn’t played centerfield in the minors since 2024. Just a really impressive performance all across the board from him — outside of that error, obviously… though there were some mitigating factors that made that catch harder than it looked.
Onto the 8th! Rocchio started off the scoring, because of course he did, with a solo shot to right field.
Then Kwan FINALLY got a quality swing off, and doubled to right. Schneemann followed it up with another double through the right side.
Hinch then walked Jose (first base was open), and Manzardo grounded out — but advanced the runners.
Against a lefty, Bo Naylor hit this incredibly important insurance homer with two outs.
Not the prettiest swing, but a successful swing nonetheless.
Cade Smith struggled a bit with his command in the 9th but got out of a bases-loaded jam. I get why Vogt went back to him for the 9th, I just think that kind of mileage on him — in what will inevitably force him to pitch 3 exhausting days in a row — could prove costly.
Regardless, the Guardians forced Game 3.
Call off work, no-show, skip school, quit, drop out, do whatever it takes to show up and show out tomorrow.