DETROIT -- Tigers manager A.J. Hinch isn’t ready to hear about October baseball. Win the day’s game, as his favorite saying goes; don’t look too far ahead.
Still, watching Tarik Skubal and Hunter Brown on the mound at Comerica Park on a Tuesday night, early evening showers giving way to a picturesque sunset reflected in the Detroit skyline, a slight chill in the Michigan air through an evening mist, it was hard not to get that feeling, even for a team that just experienced October baseball 10 months ago.
“It definitely had that type of feel, because of the guys who were throwing,” Kerry Carpenter, last year’s October hero, said. “It was just like, 'Yeah, this is what it’s going to feel like: 0-0, tight game, they have a good bullpen, we have a good bullpen.' It was really fun. It definitely got your juices flowing like it was October.”
For all the glory that pitching chaos drew Detroit last year, Tuesday’s Tigers-Astros tilt felt like postseason-style baseball, stud arm opposite stud arm, scoring opportunities precious, defenses executing in the clutch, pinch-hitters lined up when bullpens took over. The scoreless duel didn’t relent until Gleyber Torres’ bases-loaded walk on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the 10th, sending a damp Comerica Park crowd into a frenzy and the Tigers to a 1-0 walk-off win that had a postseason feel.
“Hopefully we make the postseason -- and I think they’re going to make it, too,” Torres said. “Who knows if we’re going to see each other again [after Wednesday’s series finale], but really competitive teams help to make us better. When we face really good teams, we’re going to do the same thing.”
It was a reminder that in the biggest battles, little things -- converting outs, moving baserunners, staying in the strike zone -- mean a lot, especially when the stakes are at their highest.
“In these type games, when you have two of the best in the league going, every at-bat is magnified, every mistake is magnified, every play seems like it’s worth double,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
Those plays quickly added up in the deadlock. Brown escaped runners at the corners with one out in the third inning with a Kerry Carpenter line drive that first baseman Christian Walker snared and stepped on the bag for an inning-ending double play. Carpenter turned the tables the next inning, barehanding a Ramón Urías double in the right-field corner and throwing a strike to Torres to start a relay that allowed catcher Dillon Dingler to tag Yainer Diaz just before he could sneak his hand to the plate.
“Games like that, you have to do the little things,” Torres said. “The play with Carp and myself and Dingler, that’s a huge moment. A.J. always says [that] the little things matter. Play the right way and those kind of plays help you win. If they score, maybe the game goes a different way for us.”
Skubal retired his final nine batters from there, six by strikeout. His 95th and final pitch of the night was a slider past Urias for his 10th strikeout of the night and 200th of the season, the first in the Majors to reach the mark.
“Great game from start to finish,” said Skubal, who finished with seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball.
Brown, the former Wayne State star pitching in his hometown for the fourth time in his Major League career, kept up his end with six scoreless innings of five-hit ball, walking three and striking out six. He stranded Zach McKinstry at third base after his triple leading off the fifth inning.
Carpenter made a sliding catch to finish the eighth inning for Kyle Finnegan. Astros closer Bryan Abreu made a lunging grab and heel tap at first base to retire Carpenter leading off the ninth. Spencer Torkelson gave the Tigers a walk-off opportunity when Jesús Sánchez overran his fly ball for a two-out, two-base error in the ninth, but Taylor Trammell fell flat on his back in foul territory in left field to hold onto a Wenceel Pérez fly ball and send the game to extras.
Will Vest, pitching two full innings for just the fourth time this season, screamed bounding off the mound after striking out pinch-hitter Victor Caratini to end the top of the 10th. But just as key were his preceding groundouts against Walker and Diaz, both to the left side to hold Jose Altuve at second.
By contrast, Andy Ibáñez advancing Pérez to third on a fly ball to right for the first out in the bottom of the 10th set Detroit’s win in motion, even as the only ball in play for the inning. After intentionally walking Dingler, Kaleb Ort fanned Báez, but walked Jahmai Jones on four pitches to bring up Torres, who didn’t swing at any of the seven pitches he saw.
“Just tried to be a little more patient than normal,” Torres said of his 500th career RBI, and his second career bases-loaded walk.