MLB Playoff Roundup: Guardians slam their way to the ALCS

An honestly pretty excellent Division Series round came to a close yesterday.

There were no sweeps, two went the maximum five games, and even the two that went four (Royals vs.

Yankees and Phillies vs.

Mets ) were tightly-contested.

The last showdown on the docket was Guardians vs.

Tigers, made possible by Clevelands David Fry-led rally in Game 4 back at Comerica Park.

Heres the rundown of how the victor earned a flight to New York to face the Yankees in the American League Championship Series on Monday.

AL Division Series Game 5 Cleveland Guardians 7, Detroit Tigers 3 (Cleveland wins, 3-2) Even though the ALDS finale took place at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Detroit had to be considered the favorite given the starting pitching matchup.

Matthew Boyd was perfectly fine for the Guardians down the stretch in his return from Tommy John surgery, but hes a far cry from Tarik Skubal, the likely winner of this years AL Cy Young Award.

Cleveland skipper Stephen Vogt only trusted Boyd so much, too.

The best part of his teams pitching staff is the relief corps, and he didnt hesitate to smash the bullpen button in a win-or-go-home scenario.

So Boyd was gone from the game by the third despite tossing two scoreless frames and striking out five.

Underrated rookie Cade Smith covered the next 1.2 innings, with Erik Sabrowski assisting on the final out of the fourth.

The Tigers mustered a mere pair of hits through four, and the Cleveland offense threatened Skubal a couple times.

In the third, they had unlikely support from Detroits All-Star outfielder, Riley Greene, who saw a Steven Kwan fly down the left-field line deflect off his glove to create a second-and-third, one-out opportunity for Cleveland.

Skubal showed his mettle by striking out Fry, intentionally walking Jose Ramirez, and inducing a popup from Lane Thomas.

It was a moment of triumph for Skubal, but Thomas got his revenge later.

In the meantime, Detroit drew first blood in Game 5.

Andrew Walters started the fifth for Cleveland and walked Trey Sweeney.

With DH Justyn-Henry Malloy due up next, Tigers skipper A.J.

Hinch decided to play his Kerry Carpenter card.

The Game 2 hero was hobbled by a hamstring injury on Thursday, but he could still hit.

Carpenter lasered a ball off the wall, and while he had to hold with a single, Sweeney scored all the way from first to put the Tigers up, 1-0.

Despite the slim margin, the Tigers had to be feeling good about their lead because Skubal hadnt allowed a run in 28 consecutive innings.

The streak would fall apart at the worst possible time.

Andres Gimenez led off the home half of the fifth with a single and after a strikeout, Kwan and Fry reached on knocks of their own.

With the bases loaded, Skubal plunked Jose Ramirez to tie the game at 1-1.

That was unfortunate.

What happened next with Thomas at the dish was disastrous.

What a moment that had to be for Thomas.

Cleveland beat Detroits best, and while it was far from over, that just felt like the ballgame.

The Tigers did claw back a bit.

Their best chance probably came in the very next half-inning.

It was a two-out rally, with Spencer Torkelson doubling off Tim Herrin and Parker Meadows drawing a walk.

Vogt called on Hunter Gaddis, who allowed a single to Jake Rogers, cutting it to 5-2.

Gaddis then walked Sweeney to bring Carpenter to the plate as the tying run.

There were no Kirk Gibson-esque heroics from the DH this time, though.

Gaddis struck him out to end the rally.

Detroit made it 5-3 an inning later off Gaddis when Colt Keith doubled in Greene.

The Cleveland offense decided to tack on some insurance runs though, as the Tigers bullpen finally showed signs of wear and tear after some staggeringly heavy usage in the past couple months.

When Will Vest relieved Skubal, Kwan and Ramirez sandwiched singles around a Fry strikeout.

Thomas then beat out a hit when Keith had to range too far to keep his flare in the infield.

Kwan scored to make it 6-3.

The next inning, Cleveland got to Tyler Holton on a Gimenez double and RBI single from Brayan Rocchio.

It was 7-3, and with All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase on to cover the final couple frames, the Tigers were toast.

Detroit went six up, six down against Clase, and Cleveland clinched its first ALCS appearance since winning the pennant in 2016.

A 1998 ALCS rematch with the Yankees awaits, beginning Monday.

May it go the same way! The winner will face the Mets or Dodgers , and their NLCS starts tonight in LA..

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