The Tigers were a couple pitches here, a couple there from advancing to the ALCS. Instead, they'll go back to Cleveland for a winner-take-all Game 5 in the ALDS.
The pitching matchups that A.J. Hinch won in Game 3 flipped against him in the Guardians' 5-4 win in Game 4 Thursday night. Two in particular played a part in Cleveland's rally. Hinch stood by his decisions.
With the Tigers leading 3-2 in the seventh, Hinch lifted lefty Sean Guenther after he allowed a two-out single to Steven Kwan with the Guardians pinch-hitting the right-handed David Fry for Kyle Manzardo. Hinch turned to righty Beau Brieske, who's been nearly unhittable over the Tigers' late-season run. Brieske quickly jumped ahead of Fry 0-2, but lost the battle on a 2-2 fastball at the knees that Fry drove over the left-center field wall.
"You make a small mistake or a hittable pitch, and we were a couple pitches away from getting them to pop up, it barely gets into the stands, and he stays on a fastball and drives it out of the ballpark," said Hinch. "That's just one of a ton of at-bats back and forth that were incredibly competitive."
Hinch's other magnified decision came in the ninth when he left Jackson Jobe in the game to face Cleveland's 8-9-1 hitters after the rookie had worked out of trouble in a scoreless eighth. Hinch could have called on another hard-throwing righty with more experience like Jason Foley or Will Vest, but stuck with Jobe "because Jackson is more than equipped to get those guys, and we've gotta get some other guys to shoulder some of the load," he said.
Jobe allowed back-to-back one-out singles to Brayan Rocchio and Kwan, at which point Hinch went to Vest with runners on the corners. The Guardians pulled off a perfectly-executed safety squeeze with Fry laying down the bunt and Rocchio dashing home from third to tack on an insurance run that would prove to be the difference.
Hinch said he "didn't want to use Vest" in a game the Tigers were chasing against Emmanuel Clase, but "ended up going to him to give ourselves the best chance we could, and they executed a fundamentally sound play."
As for sticking with Jobe, "I had no problem with Jackson in that inning, at that point in the order," said Hinch. "We fell into some fastball counts and gave them some fastballs to hit, which is probably something we'll look at, but we gotta find our outs."
Fortunately, they will hand the ball to Tarik Skubal for Game 5.
"It's always comforting to have Tarik Skubal on the mound," said Hinch. "We'll be there on Saturday, and Tarik is going to be the starting pitcher."