Tigers Eliminate Guardians on Away Turf, Move Forward to ALDS Against Seattle Mariners

The Tigers' catcher homered in the sixth frame, Wenceel Pérez drove in two RBIs during a four-run seventh inning, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians by a score of 6-3 on Thursday to advance to the American League Division Series.

It is the second straight season, the Detroit squad have claimed a Wild Card Series victory on the road. Detroit head to the Mariners' home for the AL Division Series with Game 1 scheduled for Saturday.

The AL West champion Mariners, the second seed, took four of the six regular-season meetings from the Tigers, who were the third wild-card entry.

Ramírez drove in the Guardians' initial run. The AL Central champion Guardians were trailing by 15.5 games in early July before pulling off the largest rally in division or league play in MLB history.

Yet, they lost momentum in the best-of-three series as Detroit moved on after posting the second-worst record in the majors in September (7-17).

The contest was tied 1-all with two away in the sixth when the catcher connected on a high changeup from Cantillo on a 1-1 count and sent it 401 feet into the seats in left-center field to put the Tigers on top.

It was also the initial playoff hit and RBI for the Detroit backstop.

Detroit then pulled away in the seventh inning by bringing up ten hitters to the plate and racking up four runs.

With an out and the bases loaded, Pérez lined a base hit to right field off Erik Sabrowski to score Javier Báez and Meadows. Gaddis entered and allowed run-scoring singles to Spencer Torkelson and Greene, which brought in Kerry Carpenter and Pérez.

Kyle Finnegan earned the victory, retiring all four batters he confronted. Joey Cantillo was charged with the loss.

The Tigers got on the board first in the third inning. With one out and runners at first and third, Carpenter grounded a ball down the first-base side that ricocheted off CJ Kayfus’ mitt when he attempted a backhand grab. The baseball rolled into foul ground near the stands as Parker Meadows scored, Carpenter advanced to second and Gleyber Torres advanced to third on what the scorekeeper called a two-base hit.

The Guardians evened the score in the fourth inning. Valera led off with a double to the right-field alley and scored on José Ramírez’s base hit to right-center on a knuckle curve by Flaherty on a full count.

The base hit was the 40th hit of Ramírez’s playoff career, making him the fifth player in franchise history to achieve that mark.

In the eighth inning, José Ramírez reached on a fielding miscue by Detroit reliever Will Vest to score Brayan Rocchio and Kwan. But he was cut down at second base.