The Tigers were back home for a seven-game stretch, and facing off against the Guardians for the first time since the 2024 postseason, when Cleveland upended the Tigers’ chances of advancing. On the mound for the Tigers was Jack Flaherty, and the Guardians were leaning on Tanner Bibee.

It was slow-going in terms of scoring plays for the game. In the first, it was 1-2-3 for both sides.

The second inning saw Carlos Santana take a one-out walk, but he was eliminated in a force-out, and then the inning ended one strikeout later. The Tigers were three-up, three-down in the home half.

The Guardians went down in order in the top of the third. In the home half, Dillon Dingler got a leadoff single, then one out later, Javier Baez singled as well. But both would be left stranded. Unfortunately, when Gleyber Torres lined out to end the inning, it seems like he must have done something to hurt himself, because at the top of the fourth, he was replaced by Andy Ibanez, and shown limping into the clubhouse. Expect to hear some kind of status update before the end of the game (I’ll include it).

The top of the fourth was rough seas for Flaherty. With one out, Jose Ramirez singled, then Kyle Manzardo walked. A Carlos Santana double then scored two runs to put the Guardians on the board first. The Guardians would settle for only those runs, but it wasn’t the start the Tigers wanted to see. In the home half, with two outs Spencer Torkelson took a walk, but soon he was walking again, back to the dugout.

At this point, it was raining pretty hard, with only a handful of faithful fans remaining in the open seats. Blame it on the rain if you want, but Flaherty gave up a leadoff home run to Angel Martinez. Three outs followed, but the Tigers would need to solve the puzzle of Bibee if they were going to catch up. The bottom of the fifth wouldn’t be that moment, though, as they went 1-2-3.

Flaherty bounced back in the sixth with a 1-2-3 inning.

A pause for an update on Torres:

INF Gleyber Torres is under evaluation after exiting tonight’s game with discomfort in his lower right leg.

— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) May 23, 2025

In the home half of the sixth, Kerry Carpenter got a leadoff single, but he would be the only baserunner of the inning. At this rate the game would get through 9 innings even despite the rain because the Tigers simply couldn’t get anything going.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Bo Naylor walked. It was obvious Flaherty was coming close to being done, but he did induce a force out to get the second out of the inning, before turning the game over to Sean Guenther. Flaherty’s final line for the game was 6.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 1 HR on a whopping 108 pitches. Guenther got the final out. The Tigers once again went down in order in the bottom of the inning. That should be the end for Bibee, so hopefully the Tigers could make something happen against an overworked Guardians bullpen.

In the eighth, Jose Ramirez got a two-out single, but that was all the Guardians could muster. Bibee was done, thank goodness, and Tim Herrin came on to replace him. Trey Sweeney took a leadoff walk, followed by a Baez single. Sweeney probably should have been out at second, but the Guardians didn’t manage to get the throw located properly. A pinch-hitting Justyn-Henry Malloy hit a blooper that really should have been caught, but three different outfielders were like “what ball?” and suddenly the bases were loaded with no outs. Cade Smith came on for the Guardians, and he was facing a pinch-hitting Akil Baddoo. However, with the bases loaded, Smith got three outs in order to diffuse the Tigers’ best scoring opportunity of the game.

In the top of the ninth, Carlos Santana took a leadoff walk and managed to hurt himself getting there, which is about my level of professional athleticism. Daniel Schneemann walked. Bo Naylor reached on what should have been a fielder’s choice but ended with everyone safe and Santana scoring thanks to a missed catch by Zach McKinstry. John Brebbia came out of the pen and Angel Martinez hit a double that Baddoo didn’t manage to catch, scoring two more runs. The Tigers finally got an out, but then Steven Kwan singled. It would have likely been more but Sweeney made a nice play stopping the ball. A Lane Thomas sac fly scored another run before the Tigers were able to get out of the inning, but the score was now 7-0.

Matt Festa came on to pitch the bottom of the ninth and got the Tigers out 1-2-3. Still three more games in the series, though.

Final: Guardians 7, Tigers 0