Guardians walk off Tigers twice in doubleheader sweep
Cleveland won both ends of Friday's doubleheader in walk-off fashion, sweeping Detroit and leaving the Tigers at 64-77, 10 games back in the AL Central.
Rocchio and Bazzana end it twice
Cleveland beat Detroit 7-6 in the opener and 4-3 in the nightcap Friday, both games ending in walk-off fashion, according to the site's own recap of the sweep, which credited Brayan Rocchio and Travis Bazzana with the decisive blows. Spencer Torkelson went 2-for-4 with a home run and Max Clark added a 3-for-4 night with 2 RBI and a stolen base, but Keider Montero was tagged for 6 earned runs on 8 hits over 4 innings, and it was enough to finish a series Detroit came in already trailing.
Guardians6-7Guardians3-4The sweep drops the Tigers to 64-77 and 10 games back of first-place Chicago in the AL Central, with an elimination number down to 12. Detroit is 1-4 in its last five, and second baseman Hao-Yu Lee was removed from the nightcap with a left shin contusion, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic.
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@barstoolWSD wants something out of Detroit
Barstool's @barstoolWSD, posting as whitesoxdave, reacted to the sweep by calling for "those Detroit losers" to help out — a jab, but one with a real stake behind it. Per Chicago beat writer Scott Merkin, the White Sox's division lead over Cleveland sits at 2.5 games, so a Tigers loss to the Guardians directly serves a Chicago fan's interest even from outside the race.
That’s a big win, now we gotta hope those Detroit losers can help out a little
Detroit has nothing of its own left to play for at 10 games back with an elimination number of 12, which is exactly what makes the needle land — the Tigers' remaining games are worth more to everyone else's standings than to their own.
Upcoming
Framber Valdez (8-10, 4.36 ERA) takes the ball for Detroit as the Tigers are in Cleveland tonight. He's coming off a loss to the Dodgers on August 30 in which he allowed 3 earned runs with 5 strikeouts over 6 innings. Cleveland counters with Parker Messick (11-8, 2.46 ERA), who beat the Royals on August 30 with 6 innings of 1-run ball and 5 strikeouts — the sharper line of the two, and the reason the Tigers are on the road again facing a team that just won three straight against them.
The market favors Cleveland, and the total points to a low-scoring game — consistent with Messick's ERA and a Detroit lineup that managed only 9 runs across the doubleheader. For the number to be wrong, Valdez needs to look more like his career norm than his last outing, and the Tigers need more from the bats than they showed all series.