Both American League Wild Card Series were decided on Wednesday, with the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals each securing upsets over their higher-seeded counterparts, the Houston Astros and the Baltimore Orioles.
The Tigers started off the afternoon by unleashing their special brand of pitching chaos on the Houston lineup. Factor in some timely late-inning hitting, and the Tigers now advance to play the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Divisional Series on the heels of a 5-2 victory. The Royals, meanwhile, once again stymied Baltimore's offense, walking away with a sweep of their own by a 2-1 score (and overall 3-1 combined series score).
Below, CBS Sports has compiled some takeaways from the day of American League action. You can also find the running coverage we provided throughout both games.
Royals follow their script to ALDS
The Royals defeated the Orioles 2-1 on Wednesday evening, eliminating Baltimore from the playoffs and punching their own ticket to the next round, where they'll meet the New York Yankees beginning this weekend in a best-of-five series. The winner of that encounter, meanwhile, will then proceed to play for the pennant.
The Royals, who became the second MLB team to ever make the playoffs in a full season after a 100-loss year, won on Wednesday the same way they won on countless nights throughout the summer. Their pitching bent, but didn't break, and they received star-caliber play from shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
Starter Seth Lugo, all but certain to receive some down ballot Cy Young Award consideration, allowed a run on five hits and a walk over 4 1/3 innings. He exited with the bases loaded, but reliever Angel Zerpa escaped without damage. Zerpa would throw a scoreless inning, then hand it over to John Schreiber, who did the same. From there, the Royals turned to lefties Sam Long and Kris Bubic before asking closer Lucas Erceg to put a bow on the win.
During the regular season, the Royals ranked seventh in staff ERA despite the 20th-highest strikeout rate and essentially a league-average WHIP. In other words, they wouldn't stack up strikeouts or keep runners from reaching at a modest clip, yet they would find a way to get the necessary outs before runs could cross the plate. It's precisely what they did on Wednesday, keeping an Orioles lineup in check for the second consecutive day. (The Royals yielded one run in two games.)
Speaking of sticking with what worked all year -- how about Witt?
Witt, 24, would likely be the AL's Most Valuable Player Award recipient this offseason were it not for the existence of Yankees star Aaron Judge. He batted .332/.389/.588 (171 OPS+) with 32 home runs and 31 stolen bases. His 9.4 Wins Above Replacement represented the second most productive year in franchise history.
Witt's double-play partner, Michael Massey, scored the first run of the day for the Royals. But it was Witt who plated the go-ahead run in the sixth, legging out an infield single on a ball that was fielded by second baseman Jordan Westburg on a dive. Witt cleared more than 31 feet per second, according to Statcast's data. (For reference, anything above 30 feet per second is considered to be elite.)
Take a look at the play in question:
Witt, in the process, became the second player in Royals franchise history to notch a go-ahead hit in the sixth inning or later in the same postseason, according to MLB.com's Sarah Langs. Mind you, he did it in exactly two overall games. The other Royals player to accomplish the feat? Amos Otis back in 1980.
It wasn't a home run, or a particularly flashy play. But it was a triumph of will, and a success in the way that these Royals have grown accustomed to throughout the year.
Role players send Tigers to the ALDS
Detroit has won a postseason series for the first time since 2013. The Tigers, thanks to utility man Andy Ibáñez, are headed to the ALDS after stunning the Astros at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday. Ibáñez cleared the bases with a go-ahead two-out, two-strike, pinch-hit double against Josh Hader in the eighth inning of Game 2. Detroit swept the best-of-three Wild Card Series.
Here is the Ibáñez double. Tigers fans are going to see this highlight for a good long time, and I don't think they'll mind one bit:
"We've been doing this all year and he was really ready, and you gotta believe," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said about Ibáñez after Game 2 (via the Detroit News).
Detroit's Game 1 win on Tuesday was thanks largely to Tarik Skubal, the likely Cy Young winner. He shut the Astros down across six innings while the bottom of the order -- No. 8 hitter Jake Rogers and No. 9 hitter Trey Sweeney, specifically -- had run-scoring singles against Framber Valdez to give the Tigers the lead and eventually the win.
In Game 2, it was pitching "chaos" -- Hinch's word -- and that was the plan. Since the trade deadline, Detroit's rotation has been Skubal and a series of openers and bullpen games. The Tigers used seven pitchers in Game 2 and none of them faced a batter twice. Every at-bat was a new pitcher for Houston's hitters. That's awfully tough.
Here's how Hinch and the Tigers pieced the Game 2 win together:
|
LHP Tyler Holton | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
RHP Brenan Hanifee | 7 | 1 2/3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
LHP Brant Hurter | 8 | 1 2/3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
RHP Beau Brieske | 5 | 1 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
RHP Jackson Jobe | 5 | 2/3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
LHP Sean Guenther | 4 | 1 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
RHP Will Vest | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Total | 35 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Only Jobe, a 22-year-old with four innings of big league experience, wobbled in Game 2. Houston rallied against the rookie to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh, though Kyle Tucker banged into an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners with one out to end the threat. That was costly. The Astros had a chance to put a crooked number on the board but didn't.
The Tigers have two stars in Skubal and Riley Greene, and a bunch of young players and veteran journeymen types who know and accept their roles, and thrive because of it. Ibáñez has punished righties all year. That's what he's on the roster to do, and he did it in Game 2. That pitching chaos is nothing those guys haven't experienced before either. Detroit gets the most out of what they have. It was Skubal and the bottom of the lineup in Game 1. In Game 2, it was the entire bullpen and Ibáñez.
Wednesday's win sends the Tigers into an ALDS matchup with the AL Central winning Guardians. That series begins Saturday in Cleveland. The Astros, meanwhile, now head into the offseason with Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander, and others set to become free agents.
