A bombshell indictment involving Emmanuel Clase dropped on Friday, alleging that the Cleveland Guardians closer rigged even more pitches than federal prosecutors had initially suspected when he was first arrested back in November.
Clase threw one of the pitches in question during the 2024 postseason. Against the Detroit Tigers.
According to federal prosecutors cited by The Athletic, the allegedly rigged pitch occurred during the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 2024 ALDS against the Tigers — an inning in which Clase threw a perfect frame in eight pitches (five strikes and three balls).
Which ball was rigged? That’s the haunting part for the Tigers. Was it the spiked first pitch to Matt Vierling? Was it one of the two balls to Colt Keith? Was it something so subtle no one noticed?
Tigers fans are stuck in that uncomfortable gray area. Detroit didn’t lose the game because of a crooked inning. Clase didn’t blow it. There was no obvious meltdown or smoking gun. Just the possibility that something — even one pitch — wasn’t pure competition.
The Tigers weren’t eliminated on that pitch. There wasn’t a dramatic swing that changed franchise history. In fact, by the box score, it looks like a routine, dominant postseason appearance from one of baseball’s best closers. That’s what makes it so unsettling.
Because if even one pitch in October wasn’t legitimate — if even one moment was manipulated for gambling profit — then the sanctity of the postseason gets dinged. And Tigers fans, who’ve been waiting years to get back to meaningful October baseball, don’t want that attached to their return.
Tigers’ mention in Emmanuel Clase scandal is a different kind of playoff heartbreak
Here’s where the conflict really sets in: Detroit didn’t benefit from this. They didn’t get cheated out of a win by a blown call or a manipulated strike zone. The inning was “perfect.”
But if prosecutors are right — and if this operation stretched across 15 identified games from 2023–25 — then the Tigers were unwitting participants in something much bigger than a divisional rivalry.
There’s anger, yes. But there’s also a strange sense of relief — relief that it wasn’t a blown save that ended Detroit’s season, that no dramatic swing can be traced directly to a fix, and that the box score still reflects what happened. And yet, there’s discomfort knowing their playoff run is now footnoted in a federal indictment.
The allegations don’t stop at one postseason inning. Prosecutors reportedly allege bettors won $460,000 from rigged pitches in at least 48 games. The Tigers are victims only in the sense that every team is a victim if the integrity of the game is compromised.
Right now, Tigers fans are wrestling with a strange emotional cocktail of frustration, unease, curiosity, a touch of paranoia and a deep hope that this is isolated.
Detroit waited a long time to matter again. The last thing they want is for their return to October to be remembered as a subplot in someone else’s gambling scandal.