CLEVELAND — Lane Thomas hit a three-run homer in a five-run outburst before Detroit got an out, and the Cleveland Guardians unleashed their lights-out bullpen to complete a four-hitter in a 7-0 win over the Tigers in an AL Division Series opener on Saturday.
Thomas’ shot — on his first career postseason swing — helped the Guardians cool off the Tigers, who stormed into the playoffs with a second-half surge before sweeping AL West champion Houston in the wild-card round.
“It started with the guys in front of me,” Thomas said.
Tanner Bibee pitched 4 2/3 innings before Guardians manager Stephen Vogt swung the door open to baseball’s best bullpen to finish off the Tigers. Relievers combined for 4 1/3 hitless innings to finish and match the largest shutout victory margin in Cleveland postseason history.
Detroit struck 13 out times and didn’t get a runner past first in the final four innings.
Cleveland’s bullpen was as advertised. Rookie Cade Smith (1-0) replaced Bibee and struck out all four batters. Tim Herrin took care of the seventh, Hunter Gaddis the eighth, and Emmanuel Clase, who led the AL with 47 saves, worked the ninth.
“It’s incredible. to come out and do what they do, day in and day out, especially during the season, 162 (games), it shows what we have back there,” Thomas said.
David Fry added a two-run, sixth-inning double for the AL Central champion Guardians, who were unaffected by not playing for almost a week with a first-round bye.
Game 2 is Monday, when the Tigers will turn to Tarik Skubal, the favourite to win the AL Cy Young Award, to try and even the best-of-five series.
The 2,327th meeting between Detroit and Cleveland was the first between the franchises and Central division rivals in the postseason.
It was as good as over after one inning.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has made the right decisions for months as his young club went from being under .500 at the trade deadline to qualifying for the postseason with a 33-13 flourish since Aug. 11.
Hinch used his bullpen in Game 1 from the start and it backfired.
The Guardians sent nine batters to the plate in the first with Thomas’ moon shot into the left-field bleachers opening the 5-0 lead. Cleveland became the first team in AL postseason history to score five runs before recording an out.
Steven Kwan got it rolling with a leadoff double against Tigers starter Tyler Holton (0-1) and Fry walked. Jose Ramirez followed with a hard hopper to third that Zach McKinstry misplayed for an error, allowing Kwan to score.
Josh Naylor’s RBI single made it 2-0 and Hinch pulled Holton after just four batters to bring in Reese Olson — the move blew up in seconds.
Thomas, who batted just .143 with 33 strikeouts in his first month with Cleveland after being acquired from Washington in July, made his first postseason at-bat with the Guardians unforgettable.
He turned on Olson’s first pitch — a slider down the heart of the plate — and launched it over the wall, sending the majority of 33,548 fans inside Progressive Field into a frenzy.
Bibee admitted feeling nerves ahead of the opener, and he showed some in the first.
He gave up a one-out single and hit Riley Greene with two outs, prompting a visit from pitching coach Carl Willis. Bibee got Colt Keith on a lazy fly for the final out on his 27th pitch.
Taking the mound in the second with a five-run lead helped Bibee settle in. The right-hander gave up four hits and struck out six.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb, a candidate to start Game 3, was added to the ALDS roster after finishing the regular season on the injured list with a blister on his middle finger. Cobb’s postseason experience — he beat Cleveland in the 2013 wild-card round with Tampa Bay — certainly helped his cause along with being a former teammate of Vogt’s. Cobb was acquired in a July trade from San Francisco.
UP NEXT
Skubal led the AL in wins (18), ERA (2.39) and strikeouts (228). The left-hander is expected to face Guardians RHP Matthew Boyd, who spent eight seasons with the Tigers and remains close friends with Skubal.