The high point of the Detroit Tigers’ season came against the Cleveland Guardians on Aug. 13, when they moved into a share of an American League wild-card spot with a home win.
Their low point did, as well, as Cleveland’s two walk-off wins in a doubleheader sweep Friday essentially knocked the Tigers out of the postseason hunt.
Detroit gets its final shot at the Guardians this year on Sunday afternoon, when the teams wrap up a four-game series in Cleveland.
Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe (1-2, 4.63 ERA) will get the start against Guardians righty Gavin Williams (13-7, 3.81).
Three-time All-Star Riley Greene gave the visitors a bit of payback on Saturday, amassing a career-high tying four hits, four RBIs, three runs and two homers in leading Detroit to a 6-0 rout of Cleveland.
It was the ninth multi-homer game of his five-year career and his first blasts anywhere since spending 20 days on the injured list with a strained right hamstring. Greene’s seven home runs in Cleveland are his most in any visiting ballpark.
“We come here all the time, so maybe that’s the reason why,” Greene said, laughing. “It’s baseball. It happens. After what happened last night, you just have to flush it and get to the next day.”
The Guardians (72-71) are now even with the Toronto Blue Jays in the battle for the final AL wild-card position, but Cleveland loses the head-to-head tiebreaker. Detroit (65-77) is 6 1/2 games behind them with 20 to play.
Greene had been 1-for-13 since being activated, but came to life against his offseason buddy, Guardians All-Star pitcher Parker Messick. The homers totaled 828 feet and each landed atop the high wall in left-center field.
“I think he owes me a fishing trip that we’ve been talking about the last few times I’ve seen him,” Messick quipped. “To go backside, left-center field is just a really good swing. I throw those balls there to a lot of other lefties and don’t get that same result.”
There won’t be any hard feelings the next time they hang out in Florida, though. Greene said it didn’t matter who he was hitting against, he was desperate to get back in a groove.
“I just had to get good pitches to hit and was trying to get on strikes,” Greene said. “On the first one, I was just trying to find barrels and make something happen.”
Jobe has either been terrific or terrible in five starts, all coming since Aug. 8 as the Tigers have fallen apart. Three of them have seen him allow one or fewer runs, but he was rocked for 10 earned runs in 8 2/3 combined innings during the other two.
His only career game against the Guardians was a home loss on May 23, 2025, when he gave up two runs in five innings.
Greene’s big night coincided with Framber Valdez and two relievers tossing a three-hitter. Angel Martinez, David Fry and Angel Genao each had a single as Cleveland was shut out for the 15th time, tied for the most in the majors with the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates.
“That’s the most four-seam (fastballs Valdez has) used, almost 20%,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “That’s not something he historically does. The two fastballs, and he threw just enough off-speed, to keep us off of that.”
Williams last pitched on Sept. 1, holding Toronto without an earned run in seven innings of a 6-1 victory. It was one of four wins by Cleveland in nine games on its homestand that ends Sunday.
Nicknamed “The Big Rig,” Williams has not faced Detroit this season. He is 3-2 with a 1.88 ERA in seven career starts against the Central Division rival.
“We capitalized (Friday) night, right? Then today, we got beat by a very good pitcher,” Vogt said. “That was the story, and we’ll be ready Sunday.”
–Field Level Media
