The Detroit Tigers drop the Cleveland Guardians to take a 2-1 lead in the ALDS

Detroit – So close you can taste it. However, there is still so much to do.

The Tigers danced on that line Wednesday after taking control of this best-of-five American League Division Series series with a meticulous 3-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians.

“We’re all human,” Spencer Torkelson said. “So we can hear the noise. We know how close we are. But it just goes back to one pitch at a time, one out at a time. That's been our approach since the first day of spring training, just finding ways to win every single day. It started a few weeks ago, a month ago, whatever it was. And that worked.

“So if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

It was the Tigers' first home playoff game since 2014, and the largest postseason crowd ever at Comerica Park (44,885) witnessed a beauty.

“Electric,” Torkelson said. “You knew it was coming. You knew they were going to show up and be loud, and they didn't disappoint. We have so much fun playing in front of so many people screaming and I'm sure it's difficult. “Playing as a visiting team is definitely an advantage for us.

BOX score: Tigers 3, Guardians 0

What a chess game that was. Both managers were on the ball from the first inning. Cleveland captain Stephen Vogt used two pinch hitters in the first two innings. Tigers manager AJ Hinch gave a free pass to Guardians star Jose Ramirez in the third inning.

“We prepare very, very well for these situations,” said Vogt. “Nothing that happened today surprised us. We were prepared for everything. We took our shots when we had the opportunity to score a few runs, placed a few bets, but they just didn't come through.”

Vogt used right-handed pinch-hitter Jhonkensy Noel in the second inning before left-handed starter Will Brennan even started an at-bat. In the end it was 0:4 for Noel. Right-handed pinch-hitter David Fry came into the game in the third inning and scored 0-3.

Hinch, on the other hand, rolled sevens.

He likes to call his pitching plans chaos. But on Wednesday it almost felt scripted. He weaved his way through the Guardians' lineup with six different pitchers, not only exploiting the left-right advantages brilliantly, but also showing hitters different pitching styles.

“Absolutely no script,” Hinch said. “Because there’s so much going on… The game is going to change, the ups and downs of things. Runners, guys standing up just in case you need them and defending against your pinch hitters.”

“I didn’t have any order in mind. All I knew was that I had ten people available and we would use them.”

It certainly helped that the Tigers took an early lead, scoring single runs in the first, third and sixth innings, forcing the Guardians to play uphill. But when the dust settled, they kept Cleveland off the scoreboard for 20 straight innings. And the two early pinch-hitting moves left Vogt without a right-handed pinch-hitting threat later in the game.

“When you play from the back, the other team has the opportunity to handcuff you,” Vogt said. “Aside from maybe a few hits, I felt like we had the advantage in almost every situation today. Great success.”

Rookie Keider Montero threw a clean six-pitch game in the first inning, but Hinch didn't deviate from the script. He went straight to left-hander Brant Hurter, against the initial batting order of eight left-handers.

“Keider had no idea,” said Hinch, who stopped Montero in the dugout after his inning and explained why he was done for the day. “He responded positively with an incredible first inning, with a lot of energy in the stadium and in an atmosphere that was second to none.”

“So if he scores three up and three down, we have Hurter for (left-hander batting Josh) Naylor to start the second period.”

Hurter went 3.1 innings and when right-hander Beau Brieske struck out six hitters in a row, striking out three of them, the Tigers had gone six innings with a three-run lead. And when Cleveland's best hitter, Jose Ramirez, came up to bat in the seventh and took the lead, he was facing his fourth different pitcher when the maneuvers occurred.

With two ons and two outs in the fifth inning, Brieske, switching at 89 mph, got Ramirez to fly out to center.

“With this type of strategy we can give different types a different look,” Hinch said. “We have a 6'6” left-handed hitter (Hurter) to some fireballing righties, Tyler Holton throwing backdoor cutters and Brieske throwing turbo sinkers and change-ups. Part of the way our squad is built and the reason we maximize our strengths is that we can do a lot of different things to the batsmen.

“It's not easy to play against four different players. But you have to have the guys that can do it, throw strikes and hit the strike zone and go right at guys and get big outs, and we did all of that.”

Ramirez faced off in the seventh inning when right-hander Will Vest possibly got the best of the game.

The Guardians had two runners with one out with a walk and a single against left-hander Sean Guenther. As Fry struck with his right hand, Hinch summoned Vest. Vogt had used Fry in the third inning against Hurter as a pinch hit for left-hander Kyle Manzardo and struck out.

Now he had to face Vest, who had a good win. He threw six fastballs in a row, all 97 and 98 mph, and with each one Fry got more and more on time. In the sixth, a two-seamer, he hit a 102-mph screamer right off the bat. That might have allowed both runners to score, and Ramirez would have been in scoring position to bat with the game-winning run.

The crowd erupted as Vierling jumped and grabbed the line drive to end the inning. Vierling and Vest also erupted, both screaming and stomping triumphantly back to the dugout.

“At the end of the day, all you can control is hitting the ball hard, and David did that,” Vogt said. “We would like to thank Vierling for playing a great game and being in the right place. And again, I felt like at times we had pretty good shots, but at other times we didn’t.”

Vest threw a clean eighth that took out Ramirez and got the ball to left-hander Holton in the ninth.

Holton opened Game 1 and was batted in for four runs. His redemption was a clean, stress-free save in the ninth.

“When I saw the lineup that they had set up and kind of knew our plan, I kind of knew it was going to go that way,” Hurter said, referring to the early Cleveland pinch hitters. “And it's pretty cool that AJ was able to do that and get a lot of guys off his roster, burn a lot of guys just because it was Keider's turn and I came in.”

Torkelson agreed.

“We have so much confidence in AJ,” he said. “He’s a master at handling our pitching staff and this team. And we know that when he comes out, we have faith in every single step he's going to take. And it goes both ways. The guys who come in do their job.” So for him, they deserve a lot of credit too.

Another thing Hinch has done this postseason is stick with Torkelson and Colt Keith, neither of whom had a hit until Wednesday. He also hasn't pushed Riley Greene out of the middle of the lineup, despite not having an RBI through Wednesday.

“In October, as a player, you are one step away from having a completely different emotional reaction,” Hinch said. “You come up with a big hit, you come up with a big walk, you move a runner. You do little things offensively to contribute to the run scoring and you feel better about your day.”

“Nobody looks at a stat line. This is not the time of year to obsess over the stat line. Productive, good bats, move the ball when you can. If you don't, wait until next time.” Get up, defend well, celebrate a win, that's all that matters.

His patience and conviction paid off. Greene struck out Parker Meadows with a two-out single in the first. Catcher Jake Rogers doubled in the third and scored on a sacrifice fly from Vierling. But in the seventh, Keith broke an 0-for-11 slip with a single and Torkelson brought him home with a double to the left field corner.

“Just grind, stay in the fight and just keep going,” Torkelson said. “It really is. In the playoffs you don't get caught up in the numbers. You just try to win baseball games, and that's what we did…Sometimes it takes one shot, one shot, to feel what you want to feel.”

“But right now, wins are the most important thing and it definitely feels good to contribute to those wins.”

Just one more win from progressing.

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@cmccosky

The Detroit Tigers drop the Cleveland Guardians to take a 2-1 lead in the ALDS

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