DETROIT — Stephen Vogt emphasized after Wednesday’s Game 3 of the American League Division Series that Cleveland’s preparation for every possible situation is beyond reproach prior to each game. Every possible move by an opponent is accounted for.
The Tigers put Vogt and his coaching staff to the test early, and the rookie manager who seemed to push all the right buttons when it came to pinch hitting and manipulating matchups during the regular season came up short in a 3-0 loss that leaves Cleveland one defeat away from elimination.
“Nothing that happened today caught us off guard,” Vogt told reporters afterward. “We were prepared for all of it. We took our shots when we had the opportunity to put some runs up, placed some bets and then just didn’t come through.”
Detroit starter Keider Montero breezed through the top of the first, retiring Steven Kwan, Kyle Manzardo and José Ramírez. The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, and Detroit manager A.J. Hinch went to lefty Brant Hurter despite Montero needing only six pitches to get through his inning of work.
Josh Naylor and Lane Thomas opened the second with back-to-back base hits off Hurter, but after a pop out by Andrés Giménez, the wheels started turning. Will Brennan, the second of three consecutive left-handed hitters at the bottom of Cleveland’s lineup was pulled in favor of pinch hitter Jhonkensy Noel.
Noel, who had a .968 OPS against left-handed pitching in the regular season, fell behind in the count 0-2 before launching a fly ball to center that landed in the glove of Parker Meadows.
Brennan said the expectation going into the game was that guys on the bench would have to be ready, and that the matchup was going to be best to get Noel to the plate in that situation. When asked if he would have liked a chance to swing the bat, Brennan replied “Absolutely.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Brennan said. “I mean this is the postseason, you want to impact the team, but that was the best move for the team right there.”
Hinch said Montero had no idea about his intention to use Hurter after the first inning until he was coming off the mound.
“He didn’t know what our strategy was before the game,” Hinch said. “I wanted him to know that he did a hell of a job getting through his three outs and I can talk to him about it later.”
The Tigers went on to use four more relievers, getting the ball to Tyler Holton in the ninth for his first postseason save.
“Part of the way our roster is built and the reason we’re maximizing strengths is we can do a lot of different things to hitters,” Hinch said. “It’s not easy to face four different guys. But you need the guys to do it, to throw strikes and pound the strike zone and go right after guys and get big outs, and we did all of that.”
Matt Vierling #8 of the Detroit Tigers reacts after catching a line drive by David Fry #6 of the Cleveland Guardians to end the seventh inning during Game Three of the Division Series at Comerica Park on October 09, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. Gregory Shamus, Getty Images
In the second, Vogt subbed out designated hitter Kyle Manzardo after one at-bat in favor of David Fry, who had a .996 OPS with 31 RBI against lefties in the regular season. But Fry struck out looking on a sweeper from Hurter that clipped the bottom of the strike zone with Kwan in scoring position. Fry said despite the result he was ready for the at-bat early because Vogt and the coaching staff do a good job communicating ahead of time.
“They’ve been really upfront about getting all the guys to stay ready from inning number one,” Fry said. “When a big situation comes up, everybody’s in the cage getting ready. Guys have done a good job.
Vogt said Cleveland had an idea that the Tigers would pull Montero prematurely and go to a lefty. Given the high leverage situations in the second and third innings, the Guardians pushed their chips early.
“We thought that was the opportunity to take our shot, both with Noel and Fry coming up on the back end,” Vogt said. “Those were high-leverage situations, chance for us to get the matchup, and we just didn’t come through.”
Cleveland went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners on base. But outside of a handful of at-bats, Vogt said he believed the Guardians had an advantage in almost every situation.
“We had traffic going,” Vogt said. “We did a great job setting the table. We just weren’t able to come up with a big hit.”
Kwan said he was not expecting Detroit to pull Montero so quickly.
“Especially with how well he did (against Cleveland) early in the year,” Kwan said. “I guess maybe we were thinking they would get a couple innings from him, but they’ve got a really good bullpen, so it makes sense that they’d want to kind of mix and match.”
Hinch said nothing about October baseball surprises him, and when the Guardians started pinch hitting early it was something he had kind of expected. He recalled watching numerous playoff games and coming to the conclusion that aggressiveness out of the manager’s chair has only seemed to increase thgroughout recent years
“We’re trying to move our players around and put them in good positions, so are they,” Hinch said. “You need your guy to beat their guy in those moments. And when we did, whether it’s Will Vest getting a line drive off of Fry, who had come to pinch-hit earlier in the game, or the Noel at-bat so early in the game against Hurter, it’s fun when you’re on the positive side of that.”
