MLB Playoffs 2024: Scrappy Tigers Rally for Comeback Win in Game 2, Wild Card Sweep of Astros

It was a particularly tough assignment for 22-year-old Jackson Jobe.

Sure, he’s the best pitcher in baseball, with an electric arsenal that warranted a spot on Detroit’s wild-card roster. Sure enough, he was scheduled to be at the bottom of Houston’s lineup, seemingly reducing the demand for a rookie to record late-inning outs as the gritty Tigers chased down a huge upset at Minute Maid Park in the wild card round of the American League in the playoffs.

But with just two Major League appearances under his belt – shutting out the Rays with a six-run lead in his debut and covering the middle innings of a game against a historically bad White Sox team – Jobe had yet to discover what it means to pitch with high leverage at the highest level.

For five innings Wednesday, four of Jobe’s bullpen buddies had faced off against Astros right-hander Hunter Brown in an unconventional pitching duel between a traditional dynamite starter and a cavalcade of relief weapons. But after Parker Meadows gave Detroit the lead with a solo home run to start the sixth inning, the tone changed. Suddenly the countdown to 27 zeros started; it was just a matter of who manager AJ Hinch would bring in next.

With a one-run lead and nine outs to go, it was Jobe’s turn, called up from the bullpen to become the latest and greatest Tigers pitcher and give Hinch exactly what he was looking for. It wasn’t the rookie righty’s game to finish, but he was entrusted to make the outs come. Compared to his September outings, the stakes had been raised exponentially.

Again: difficult assignment.

Subscribe Baseball Bar-B-Cast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Jobe defeated Victor Caratini with his first offer. Jeremy Peña followed with a single. Mauricio Dubón provided a beautiful bunt.

In no time the bases were loaded, with no one out. Welcome to October, boy.

Then hulking pinch-hitter Jonathan Singleton came to the plate. Singleton ripped a ground ball to the right side that was smothered by Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkelson, but Torkelson’s throw home was mishandled by catcher Jake Rogers.

Draw. Bags still packed. Still no one outside. José Altuve is coming. Yes.

On the first pitch, Altuve threw a shallow fly ball down the right field line, just deep enough for the speedy Peña to sprint home in time to take the lead on a sacrifice fly: 2-1 Astros. With Altuve retired, left-hander Sean Guenther replaced Jobe and promptly got Kyle Tucker to ground into a double play to end the frame. Yet the lead was gone.

Outside of the hit-by-pitch, Jobe made his pitches, but the results simply didn’t follow. Such is the cruel nature of this sport at this time of year. For the first time in a long time, the Tigers’ self-described “pitching chaos” had been disrupted. It was now up to Detroit to respond.

With Bryan Abreu already pitched, Houston turned to veteran Ryan Pressly for the top of the eighth inning — hardly a bad decision on paper considering his stellar postseason resume, which included a streak of 20 straight appearances in October without allowing an earned run on Wednesday. That said, Pressly’s dominance is starting to wane, as the 35-year-old has only been good this season, rather than one of the best relievers in the sport. As such, Pressly’s appearance was less of a stretch for this scrappy Tigers offense that has seemingly taken advantage of every opportunity over the past month.

Righty-killer Kerry Carpenter hit a line drive up the middle for a one-out single that brought life to the ever-eager Tigers dugout. Matt Vierling followed with a hard grounder through the right side, allowing Carpenter to reach third base. With Riley Greene batting, Pressly uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Carpenter to run home and tie the game. Just like that, Detroit turned it into a brand new ballgame – and still had something boiling.

A Greene strikeout and a walk to Colt Keith ended Pressly’s day prematurely. It was then up to Josh Hader to escape this escalating mess – which is why Houston paid him the big money.

But Hader only made matters worse. A walk to Spencer Torkelson sparked Houston’s own bases-loaded crisis. With left-handed third baseman Zach McKinstry scheduled, Hinch called right-handed Andy Ibañez for a pinch-hit. For all the bullpen buttons Hinch has correctly pushed this year, his lineup configurations and bench deployments have been equally masterful, and Ibañez — supremely capable against lefties — has been a key cog in such strategies.

“I think our players understand that it’s not about the player I take off the field,” Hinch said after the game. “If you can change the psyche and maybe take a little bit of pride and ego out of it, anything is possible. You can make decisions that put guys in a position to be successful. Who knows what we’ll do next.” Our things that we pride ourselves on are that we are unpredictable, and our players believe in that that leads to success.”

And Ibañez delivered. After shutting down three hellish heats from Hader, Ibañez connected at 90 mph up the middle, scorching the ball toward the left field corner for a bases-clearing double that gave Detroit a three-run lead.

It turns out that chasing late-inning leads in October isn’t an activity reserved exclusively for rookies.

With that, the countdown to victory began again for Detroit, and Minute Maid Park was suitably stunned. Not a single Astros batter reached base during the final two innings of Detroit’s 5-2 victory, as Guenther and Will Vest slammed the door on Houston’s season and ensured Detroit’s magical ride would last at least one more round.

The Tigers had lost 21 straight postseason games when they trailed into the eighth inning. The Astros had won 47 consecutive postseason games when they led entering the eighth inning. Both streaks came to an end on Wednesday.

It’s fitting that such an improbable outcome was necessary to end one of the most remarkable achievements in sports: Houston’s run of seven straight trips to the American League Championship Series. With an extra round ahead of them in October – unlike the vast majority of the Astros’ recent playoff runs, which began in the ALDS – this postseason presented a unique challenge for an Astros team that already had its chances defeated by qualifying for the playoffs after a 7-19 start.

Perhaps more importantly, this unique challenge faced a unique opponent: a Tigers team that played with an enormous amount of self-confidence and an intense belief that their way of doing things to the fullest work. Houston’s ALCS streak eventually had to end, and Detroit was more than happy to take the honors.

“We have this connection, this togetherness that makes us like a group of brothers, who all support each other, and we push each other and keep working and working all the time, just to get the results,” Ibañez said afterward. . “No matter that no one was advocating for us, no matter that no one put us in a good spot in the playoffs, we didn’t care.”

And so the Tigers advance to face the Guardians in the ALDS, with Game 1 scheduled for Saturday at 1:00 PM ET at Cleveland’s Progressive Field. The stories will shift to the AL Central’s remarkable collective performance, with another division foe in Kansas City also advancing to the ALDS against New York. The Astros need to regroup now as they enter a crucial offseason much earlier than expected, with Alex Bregman’s free agency looming and an entire winter to wonder why they fell short this season.