CLEVELAND — After 2 1/2 weeks of torment, a historic collapse and the brink of elimination, the Tigers found their way past the Guardians at the perfect time, with the help of a former Ohio hero and a longtime Ohio nemesis. Dillon Dingler’s go-ahead home run in the sixth inning and Javier Báez’s leadoff double to ignite a four-run seventh led the Tigers out of their house of horrors with a 6-3 win on Thursday in Game 3 of their AL Wild Card Series at Progressive Field.
The victory sent the Tigers on their way to Seattle with a berth in the Division Series, where they seemed to be headed for most of the summer. Cleveland’s late-season surge and Detroit’s September struggles, including five losses to the Guardians over the final two weeks of the regular season, sent the Tigers on a roundabout path, knocked out of the AL Central title and into the AL’s final Wild Card slot – bringing them back to Cleveland, where they won Game 1 but couldn’t convert opportunities to take Game 2.
For five innings Thursday, the win-or-go-home game seemed poised for another round of Guardians magic. While Jack Flaherty delivered his best outing in weeks, tossing 4 2/3 innings of three-hit, one-run ball, Detroit missed chances to add on to Kerry Carpenter’s third-inning RBI double in what quickly became a bullpen game for Cleveland.
Guardians lefty Joey Cantillo was an out away from sending a 1-1 game into the seventh when Dingler, a former three-sport high school star down the road in Massillon and a standout catcher/center fielder at Ohio State, made Cantillo pay for feeding him back-to-back changeups. The resulting drive cleared the high wall in left field for Dingler’s first postseason homer and first of any kind at Progressive Field in front of family and friends, many of whom were once Cleveland fans.
Dingler, who caught José Ramírez trying to steal second after he drove in Cleveland’s tying run in the fourth inning, became the first Tigers catcher to throw out a would-be basestealer and hit a home run in a postseason game since Bill Freehan in 1972. Báez, who celebrated a World Series championship on this field in a winner-take-all game for the Cubs in 2016, did his part on defense with a lunging grab of a C.J. Kayfus liner in the third inning, then helped Detroit’s bats break out in the seventh.
Báez, who has taken a more contact-oriented approach in the postseason, swung big against lefty Erik Sabrowski in the seventh. He just missed a home run, but his double off the high wall set up the Tigers to finally get past their struggles with runners in scoring position.
Wenceel Pérez, moved up to third in a lineup shuffle despite a 5-for-56 slump, made the Guardians pay for a Kerry Carpenter intentional walk by lacing a two-run single into the right-field corner off Hunter Gaddis. Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene followed with RBI singles of their own, building a 6-1 lead.
True to form, the Guardians rallied in the eighth, taking advantage of an errant catch by Will Vest on what would’ve been an inning-ending grounder by Ramírez. But Báez stepped up again, making a trademark quick tag on Ramírez trying to take second after Vest chased down the ball in front of the Tigers dugout.
