DETROIT — For a minute, the euphoria of another big Kerry Carpenter home run against the Guardians enveloped Comerica Park. His 429-foot drive to center field had brought the Tigers, down to their final out, new life against a team Carpenter loves to haunt.
“I’m not sure,” Carpenter said when asked what folks in Cleveland think about him, “but it’s a real blessing to be in this position.”
Three Cleveland batters and three Cleveland runs later, that exhilaration — like Cade Smith’s 99 mph fastball to Carpenter a half-inning earlier — was long gone. So, too, were any hopes of the Tigers wrapping up their march to the postseason in this series. In its place, for some, might have been a lingering queasiness about the standings.
“Tough emotional swing, for sure,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “But more than emotions, it was a tough result.”
What was hoped to be a coronation series for what would be the Tigers’ first division title since 2014 is looking more and more like a race for the AL Central title. Detroit’s 7-5 loss in 10 innings whittled the gap over Cleveland to 5 1/2 games, the Tigers’ narrowest lead since Aug. 12.
“I don’t even know that I would define it as pressure,” Hinch said. “I just think it’s incredible coming to the ballpark with this opportunity. If you see it as pressure, I bet it feels daunting. … But we don’t have that. We feel a ton of excitement coming to the ballpark. There’s a ton of energy today. Our guys, we played a well-executed game. They played a well-executed game. And I’ve said repeatedly, you’ve got to play the schedule and you’ve got to play it in its entirety.”
The admiration appears to be mutual.
“I think it would be really hard to say it doesn’t feel similar to what it was [last year],” Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan said. “We had some really good games with them last year around this time, and this was no different. It’s just two really good baseball teams going at it. It’s fun to play in and be a part of it.”
For Detroit fans of a certain age, there’s history behind a sense of trepidation. The 2009 Tigers saw a three-game lead over the Twins with four games to play vanish before losing a winner-take-all tiebreaker game to the Twins in extra innings. The 2006 Tigers led the division from mid-May until a five-game losing streak to end the regular season cost them the division to Minnesota. Even the last division champs had to sweat at the end in 2014, clinching on the final day after watching a 7 1/2-game lead in mid-July vanish by the end of August.
That’s not these players, and it’s not their history to carry. But it’s their race to embrace.
“It’s a great feeling to be the ones being chased, because that means you’re in first place,” Carpenter said. “We’ve been in the driver’s seat most of the year, and they’ve come closer and closer, but it’s kind of just sticking to what we can do as a team. We know that when we play our best as a team, we can get it done. It’s just been a little tough recently.”
This year’s Tigers own a larger lead with 11 games to go than those clubs did at the same point, though not as large as their 10-game advantage two weeks ago. They’re 5-8 in September, and 7-13 since Aug. 24.
“It’ll be exciting down the stretch,” Carpenter said, “but we hope to get back to our best.”
The Tigers can still firm their grasp on the division by winning the next two games, which would allow them to clinch as early as Saturday. They’ll have Jack Flaherty and Tarik Skubal on the mound Wednesday and Thursday in that effort. But as Tuesday showed, they also need to solve a Cleveland pitching staff that has been key to its late-season charge, and a defense that nullified Detroit’s aggressive baserunning, throwing out runners at second and home.
“They played a tremendous defensive game,” Hinch said.
Detroit also needs to slow down a Guardians offense that blitzed Will Vest in the 10th after battling starter Casey Mize over 5 1/3 innings despite eight strikeouts. Before the emotional swing of the final two innings, the image of Mize flinging his glove and cap against the dugout wall upon his exit might well have summed up the emotions of the night.
“They’re all important right now,” Mize said. “You’re starting to feel that a little bit more so than you were a month ago. It’s not truly October baseball, but it’s a good test for us.”
