“Energetic” guards stave off Tigers elimination with big flies and small balls

And even then, it's not a great situation.

Ramirez, the Cleveland Guardians' star slugger who has enjoyed the Tigers' pitching over the years, delivered a powerful, crowd-silencing hit in a 5-4 victory over Detroit in Game 4 of the American League Division Series a whole host of frustrations went down Thursday night at Comerica Park.

With two outs and nobody in the top of the fifth inning, Ramirez hit a changeup from Tyler Holton and sent it screaming to left for a 418-foot home run that broke the 1-1 tie. More importantly, Ramirez initiated a Guardians dugout, slamming his bat to the ground before trotting to first base as his teammates enjoyed the show.

“I was really looking forward to finding ways to help the team, and that little hit with the bat was to kind of release all the energy,” Ramirez said Thursday night before the ball club packed up to return to Cleveland, where It will also be a winner-take-all Game 5 on Saturday.

“Because I just really wanted to help the boys.”

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said, “Jose hitting that home run must have felt so good for him and it gave our team incredible energy.”

Ramirez had an OPS over 1.100 against the Tigers in the regular season and a career OPS over .900 against Detroit, but he was a good-for-nothing in the first four games of the ALDS. He began to show signs of frustration, particularly with a controlled swing called a strike in his first at-bat.

He hit it in his first two at-bats on Thursday, dropping him to 1-for-11 in the series, and the one hit was, frankly, a gift. The ball that bounced to third base in Game 5 was originally (and correctly) ruled an error by the Tigers' Zach McKinstry, but was eventually turned over for a double. Ramirez was also intentionally kicked twice by Tigers coach AJ Hinch.

Not on Thursday, not with the bases empty, even though Ramirez always bats with at least one runner in scoring position. Yourself.

“Maybe I should stop talking about him,” Hinch said. “I hate it when he comes to bat. I love the player from the other side. You know, we’ve held him pretty well so far.”

“We made good pitches. He will leave his mark.”

Ramirez's home run put the Guardians back in the lead, 2-1, before the Tigers tied it moments later on a Zach McKinstry home run and then took a 3-2 lead an inning later on Wencell Perez's two-out RBI single went. Then came another big blow for the Guardians, from David Fry, who had to pinch-hit against Beau Brieske, who had won the fight with a strikeout the day before. But this time, Brieske left a 98 mph fastball over the middle of the plate and watched as Fry absolutely destroyed it over the wall in left, 382 feet from home plate.

Things were going wild again in the Guardians' dugout. A player tossed bats into the air as Fry trotted and Cleveland led 4-3.

Vogt chose Kyle Manzardo for the close-hit Fry, knowing Hinch would counter with Brieske for lefty Sean Guenther.

“You have to make your shots,” said Vogt, “and luckily one of our shots worked today.”

Chris McCosky asks AJ Hinch about Thursday's Game 4 loss at Comerica Park.

Chris McCosky asks AJ Hinch about Thursday's Game 4 loss at Comerica Park.

In a duel between one unpredictable team and another, Fry placed a perfect safety squeeze bunt on the next play for an insurance run that proved huge as the Tigers scored in the ninth before the Guardians finished what Steven Kwan described it as “stressful.” Game – one with four lead changes and two ties. Fry was 2 of 10 with two RBIs and three strikeouts in the first three games of this series. He then had three RBIs in Game 4 alone.

Fry hadn't suffered a single casualty in his major league career until Thursday.

“Vogt kind of came up to me and said, 'Hey, how confident are you about getting this done?' And I told him I wasn't a particularly good hitter in high school, so I'm pretty confident I had to roll the dice a lot,” Fry said with a wry smile.

“And then right before I went up he said, 'Do it on the first pitch,' and luckily I managed to run in.”

More: Wojo: The Tigers can't take out the Guardians and face their biggest test yet

Tigers reliever Will Vest was barely into the game when his shovel throw to catcher Jake Rogers came late.

The Guardians scored a run in the first inning against Reese Olson, ending a 20-inning scoreless streak. They were shut out in Games 2 and 3, but managed 11 hits against six Tigers pitchers – after only allowing 17 total hits in the first three games. Steven Kwan had three more hits and has eight for the series. He seems to be in the middle of every rally.

Ramirez, on the other hand, was, as is often the case, an isolated player – even if his postseason track record wasn't great and only got worse in the first three games of the ALDS.

Tigers standout reliever Tyler Holton got the first two outs in the fifth, relieving Olson. That brought up Ramirez, who admitted he was there for the left-hander's switch. He got one on the first pitch and took off. On the second pitch he caught another one and put it in.

“I know he has a good changeup and I tried to look for him,” said Ramirez, who hit his third career home run after the season, his first since the 2022 wild-card round. In the end I made a good connection.”

And because of that swing and Fry's big and small swing, Ramirez and the Guardians ended up getting a date for Saturday night too. First pitch is at 8:08 a.m. (the game was moved to prime time when the New York Yankees got past the Kansas City Royals later Thursday night), with the Tigers' Tarik Skubal, who dominated in their Game 2 win over the Guardians, brought Cleveland into the game.

“We’re going to compete,” Ramirez said. “We have played against him countless times in the past. We achieved good results. You have achieved good results. So it will be a competition.”

“And I trust my guys to go after it and do our best.”

The best of Ramirez is, of course, pretty damn scary.

And that's what Hinch worried about, whether he's a runner or not.

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