CLEVELAND — Lane Thomas belted a grand slam in the fifth inning to help the Cleveland Guardians advance to the American League Championship Series with a 7-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday.
Thomas added an RBI infield single in the seventh and Brayan Rocchio drove in a run in the eighth for the Guardians, who captured Game 5 of the best-of-five AL Division Series.
Cleveland will visit the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the ALCS on Monday. The Yankees won four of the six meetings against the Guardians in the regular season.
Jose Ramirez forged a 1-1 tie in the fifth after he was hit by a pitch in the left forearm with the bases loaded.
Thomas stepped up and deposited a first-pitch sinker from Tigers ace Tarik Skubal (1-1) over the wall in left-center field for Cleveland’s first grand slam in the postseason since Francisco Lindor accomplished the feat against the Yankees in the ALDS in 2017.
Thomas’ homer was his second of the series. He launched a three-run shot in Cleveland’s 7-0 victory over Detroit in Game 1 last Saturday.
The homer in Game 5 was the first allowed by Skubal (1-1) since Sept. 12. The AL Cy Young candidate gave up five runs on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts over six innings.
Tim Herrin (1-0) allowed one run on one hit in 1 1/3 inning to pick up the win.
Steven Kwan collected three hits for the third straight game and improved to 11-for-21 with six runs in the series.
Kerry Carpenter had a pinch-hit RBI single in the fifth to open the scoring for the Tigers. Carpenter was held out of the starting lineup due to a left hamstring injury sustained after he rounded third and scored a run in the sixth inning of Game 4.
Trey Sweeney worked a five-pitch walk off Andrew Walters to open the fifth before Carpenter hobbled to the plate in place of Justyn-Henry Malloy. Carpenter sent a 3-1 fastball from Walter off the base of the wall in right-center field, and Sweeney was able to beat the relay home after he slid his left hand across the plate ahead of the tag by catcher Bo Naylor.
Jake Rogers had an RBI single to right field in the sixth and Colt Keith added an RBI double to center in the seventh to trim the Guardians’ lead to 5-3. After Keith’s double, Eli Morgan replaced Hunter Gaddis and struck out both Wenceel Perez and Spencer Torkelson to end the threat.
Morgan walked Parker Meadows to start the eighth before Emmanuel Clase entered the contest and retired all six batters he faced to notch his second save of the series.
–Field Level Media
