Guardians @ Tigers (5/22/25)

Well that game was pure disappointment. The Detroit Tigers fall to the Cleveland Guardians with a 7-0 score. Definitely a heartbreaker given it was a big divisional matchup. At the very least, the Tigers still hold a strong first place position being 5 games above Cleveland still. Though let's not play lazily like we did today and lose the series.

Flaherty overall today was pretty solid. He did give up 2 in the 4th but that's only because Mr. Home Plate was blind to all hell. Declaring several balls that were CLEAR AS DAY strikes. So that favored Cleveland giving them those runs. Angel Martinez does hit a solo homer in the 5th to make it 3-0 Guards but nothing more after that. Tigers and Guardians go back and forth for the next few innings. Flaherty has some solid pitches and gets pulled out in the top 7th after having well over 100 pitches. He was definitely getting tired so it was the right call for Hinch to pull him out at that point. Sean Guenther comes in and outs Noel on the first pitch!

Tim Herrin come in to pitch in the bottom of the 8th. Tigers finally start to make things exciting. Trey Sweeney walks. Baez singles, Malloy singles. Here we go! Bases loaded, nobody out! Welp... Stephen Vogt sends out Cade Smith... and suddenly Akil Baddoo strikes out... Zach McKinstry strikes out.... Riley Greene strikes out... perfect. Bases loaded... no outs... and we got nothing. (Slow clapping intensifies.)

Oh boy don't get me started on the top of the 9th inning. Everything for Detroit just fucking dies here. Carlos Santana walks. Daniel Schneemann walks. Bo Naylor grounds to the fielder's choice. Guenther throws to McKinstry who can't catch the ball to save his damn life and Santana scores and it's 4-0 Guardians. McKinstry understandably disappointed in himself. That error will absolutely haunt him. Angel Martinez doubles and Naylor and Schneemann scores and now it's 6-0 Guards. Lane Thomas sacrifice flies to make it 7-0 Guardians. Man it's just like what happened in game 1 of the 2024 divisional series.

Tigers basically concede and finish out the game in the bottom. So yeah... this game was complete shit. But it's a 4 game series. A sweep is improbable. Cleveland's likely pitcher tomorrow will be Slade Cecconi with a 5.40 ERA. Jackson Jobe will be Detroit's probable pitcher. While he has a 4.12 ERA, he has a 4-0 record and the Tigers are 8-0 when he's the starter. Mize might pitch on Saturday and Skubal will pitch on Sunday. Let's just hope the Tigers can actually score some damn runs. All it takes is a little momentum. On the other hand, congrats to Flaherty for 1,000 career strikeouts! He definitely had a solid game today. The offense just couldn't help him at all.

Let's bounce back tomorrow. Maybe Kerry Carpenter will hit a 3 run homer off of Emmanuel Clase.