DETROIT — With Cleveland’s season on the line, David Fry came off the bench and gave the Guardians an offensive jolt Thursday in Game 4 of the American League Division Series.
Fry blasted a two-run homer in the seventh inning and added a run-scoring sacrifice bunt in the ninth to help the Cleveland Guardians keep their season alive with a 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
“You dream about it as a kid and think about it all the time, and in the offseason when you’re working on stuff, and then it happens and it goes by real quick,” Fry said of his homer. “I remember looking at the dugout and high-fiving (first base coach) Sandy (Alomar), and then just black out, and then you’re in the dugout and cheering with the boys. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.”
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt replaced Kyle Manzardo with Fry in the seventh when the Tigers went to reliever Beau Brieske. Vogt thought that matchup would be favorable for Fry.
“David Fry is one of the best baseball players in this league,” Vogt said. “He’s just a baseball player. You saw it tonight. Pinch-hit off the bench, home run, gets the safety squeeze down, game on the line.”
Relievers Hunter Gaddis (1-0), Tim Herrin and Emmanuel Clase held the Tigers to one run over the last 3 2/3 innings as the Guardians tied the series 2-2 to set up a deciding Game 5 in Cleveland on Saturday.
The winner will face the New York Yankees, who eliminated the Kansas City Royals with a 3-1 win Thursday, in the American League Championship Series beginning Monday in a best-of-seven series.
“What an incredible game, with a lot of big-time performances on both sides, and a hard-fought game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Expect nothing less from these two teams, playing for the chance to advance.”
Cleveland earned its first playoff win when facing elimination since Game 6 of the 1997 World Series in Florida. The Guardians had dropped 11 consecutive postseason elimination games since then, the longest such losing streak in MLB history.
Fry gave the Guardians a 4-3 lead in the seventh with a two-run home run off Brieske (0-1) with two outs. Fry’s 382-foot blast to left-center came on a 2-2 count, scoring Steven Kwan from second base.
Cleveland added an insurance run in the ninth. With runners at first and third and one out, Fry bunted and reliever Will Vest’s throw at the plate was not in time to tag a sliding Brayan Rocchio.
The Tigers pulled within one in the ninth when Justyn-Henry Malloy doubled, went to third on a groundout and came home on a groundout by Jace Jung. Clase fanned Matt Vierling to send the series back to Cleveland.
The Guardians snapped a 20-inning scoreless streak in the first inning when Lane Thomas singled to right field and Kwan scored from third base, giving Cleveland a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers loaded the bases in the bottom of the second and tied the score at 1 when Trey Sweeney’s sacrifice fly to center scored Colt Keith.
Jose Ramirez belted his first home run of the postseason in the fifth inning off reliever Tyler Holton to push Cleveland ahead 2-1. Holton had replaced Tigers starter Reese Olson, who allowed one run on five hits over four innings with one walk and four strikeouts.
Detroit’s Zach McKinstry tied the score at 2-2 leading off in the bottom half of the inning when he blasted a 354-foot home run off Tanner Bibee into left field. Bibee, who threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings in Game 1, was immediately replaced by Chad Smith after allowing four hits and two runs in four-plus innings.
Detroit jumped in front 3-2 in the sixth when pinch hitter Wenceel Perez hit a two-out single to center off Gaddis that allowed Kerry Carpenter to score from second base.
–Bob Tripi, Field Level Media
