The Cleveland Guardians held off a gritty Detroit Tigers squad to win Game 4 of the ALDS 5-4 and force the series to a fifth and deciding game.
Game 5 will be played Saturday at Progressive Field, with first pitch scheduled for 8:08 p.m. ET.
The back-and-forth contest at Comerica Park saw Cleveland emerge victorious thanks to David Fry’s go-ahead, pinch-hit two-run homer in the seventh inning.
Fry then squeezed the winning run home in the top of the ninth.
The victory snapped Cleveland’s 11-game losing streak when facing elimination. It was the club’s first such victory since Game 6 of the 1997 World Series.
“Wow. Just such a great baseball game,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said, per ASAP Sports. “I feel like every game this series has been a good baseball game, and for our guys to score first, they come back, take the lead, we come back, back and forth, back and forth. And just tremendous job by our bullpen, guys off the bench, defense.
“It was just a well-played baseball game on both sides and a lot of fun.”
The Guardians ended a 20-inning scoreless streak with a run in the first inning, though that lead was short-lived when Detroit tied it up in the second. Another Cleveland lead, this one courtesy of a José Ramírez solo shot in the top of the fifth, was answered immediately by Tigers third baseman Zach McKinstry’s homer in the bottom half.
Detroit took the lead in the sixth inning on Wenceel Pérez’s pinch-hit single, only to be shocked by Fry’s homer the next inning. Fry became the ninth player and first pinch hitter to hit a go-ahead home run with his team trailing in the seventh or later while facing elimination, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
“You dream about it as a kid and think about it all the time, and in the offseason when you’re working on stuff, and then it happens and it goes by real quick,” Fry said. “I remember looking at the dugout and high-fiving (first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr.), and then just black out, and then you’re in the dugout and cheering with the boys. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.”
The Tigers didn’t go down without a fight, putting runners on base during the final two innings and scoring a run in the ninth. But Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, who gave up the game-winning homer in the ninth inning of Game 2, shut the door this time and recorded a five-out save to send the series back to Cleveland.
“You knew they weren’t going to just fold,” Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson said, according to Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. “This would’ve been their last game. They’re not going to just give up. They’re going to keep swinging. And props to them, they came out on top at the end. Losing sucks, whether it’s Game 50 or October. We hate losing.”
Detroit removed designated hitter Kerry Carpenter in the bottom of the seventh after he appeared to come up limp while running the bases a few innings earlier. Manager A.J. Hinch said Carpenter will undergo testing over the next 24 hours, according to Evan Woodbery of MLive.com.
“Anytime a player like him has to leave the game, it’s concerning, but I’m going to hold off any thoughts until the doctors give me an update, and he gets imaging and all the things that we need to do prior to Saturday,” Hinch said.
