Tigers win ALDS Game 3 2024

DETROIT — For a fleeting moment Wednesday, A.J. Hinch looked like he might take a day off from pitching chaos.

Keider Montero needed just six pitches to retire the top of the Guardians’ lineup to open Game 3 of the AL Division Series, the first postseason game at Comerica Park in a decade. As Montero descended the steps into the dugout, Hinch bypassed the usual end-of-outing handshake or keep-it-up fist bump and instead put his arm around Montero for a few words.

In went left-hander Brant Hurter, setting off a procession of pinch-hitters, pitching changes, moves and countermoves. When everything settled, the Tigers had a 3-0 win and control of the series, one win away from their first trip to the ALCS since 2013.

It was pitching and hitting chaos, and it was mastery from Hinch, whose team has held the Guardians scoreless since the seventh inning of Game 1, a 20-inning drought.

Entering the 2024 Division Series, best-of-five postseason series that have been tied 1-1 have seen the team winning Game 3 go on to take the series 45 of 62 times (73%). Under the current 2-2-1 format, teams leading 2-1 and playing Game 4 at home had taken the series 25 of 31 times (81%). Of those 25 series victories, 18 came at home in Game 4.

Cleveland first-year manager Stephen Vogt loaded his lineup with left-handed hitters to counter the right-handed Montero, who was a starter for most of the summer but moved into a bulk pitching role in September before being left off the roster for the Tigers’ AL Wild Card Series sweep in Houston. Once Hunter entered, so did the right-handed threats, including Jhonkensy Noel to pinch-hit before Will Brennan could get a plate appearance, and David Fry for Kyle Manzardo.

The Guardians hit five singles in 16 batters off Hurter, but they couldn’t get the breakthrough hit they needed. Hurter retired Bo Naylor to strand runners at the corners in the second inning, and Josh Naylor to strand two more in the third. Once back-to-back singles brought up the middle of Cleveland’s order, Hinch turned to righty Beau Brieske, who fanned Fry on a slider before getting a flyout to center from José Ramírez.

Brieske, who saved Game 2 after Kerry Carpenter’s dramatic three-run homer, retired all six batters he faced in Game 3, three by strikeout, to protect a Tigers lead built on Riley Greene’s first-inning RBI single and Matt Vierling’s third-inning sacrifice fly that scored Jake Rogers. Spencer Torkelson’s sixth-inning double, his first hit of the postseason, added an insurance run off Eli Morgan.

When two more baserunners off lefty Sean Guenther brought up Fry again as the potential tying run in the seventh, Hinch turned to Will Vest, who got a line drive from Fry that Vierling snatched with a leaping grab.