Tigers Knock Out Guardians on Away Turf, Advance to American League Division Series Versus Mariners

The Tigers' catcher sent one over the fence in the sixth frame, Pérez drove in two RBIs during a four-run seventh inning, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Thursday’s game to advance to the ALDS.

It is the second straight season, the Tigers have claimed a Wild Card Series victory on the road. Detroit head to the Mariners' home for the Division Series with Game 1 on Saturday.

The Mariners, AL West winners, the No. 2 seed, won four out of six regular-season matchups from the Tigers, who were the third wild card.

José Ramírez scored the Guardians' initial run. The Guardians, AL Central champs were trailing by 15.5 games in the start of July before pulling off the biggest comeback in division or league history in MLB history.

Yet, they lost momentum in the three-game series as the Tigers moved on after posting the second-poorest performance in the major leagues in last month (seven wins and seventeen losses).

The contest was knotted at 1-1 with two away in the sixth inning when the catcher connected on a high changeup from Joey Cantillo on a 1-1 count and sent it over 400 feet into the seats in left-center field to give Detroit the lead.

It was also the first postseason hit and run batted in for the Tigers catcher.

Detroit then broke it open in the seventh inning by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four times.

With an out and the bases loaded, Pérez singled sharply to right field off Sabrowski to drive in Javier Báez and Meadows. Hunter Gaddis entered and gave up RBI base hits to Torkelson and Greene, which plated Carpenter and Pérez.

Finnegan got the win, retiring all four batters he confronted. Cantillo was charged with the loss.

The Detroit team opened the scoring in the third inning. With an out and runners at first and third, Kerry Carpenter hit a grounder down the first-base side that deflected off Kayfus’ mitt when he attempted a backhand grab. The ball skidded into foul territory near the seats as Parker Meadows scored, Carpenter advanced to second and Gleyber Torres moved to third on what the scorekeeper called a two-base hit.

The Cleveland squad evened the score in the fourth inning. Valera led off with a two-bagger to the right-field corner and came home on José Ramírez’s single to right-center field on a knuckle-curve by Flaherty on a 3-2 count.

The single was the fortieth knock of Ramírez’s playoff career, making him the fifth individual in franchise history to achieve that mark.

In the eighth inning, José Ramírez reached on a missed catch error by Vest to score Rocchio and Kwan. But Ramírez was cut down at second base.