A sleepless night in Seattle will be followed by many more in the Motor City, as the Detroit Tigers will spend the long winter wondering what they could have done differently to save their season.
But concerning one of their most questionable choices of the season, manager AJ Hinch isn’t giving it a second thought.
The Tigers’ skipper said it was an “easy decision” to pull the plug on ace Tarik Skubal’s historic gem after just six innings in the club’s 15-inning, season-ending 3-2 heartbreaker to the Seattle Mariners in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Friday night.
The Mariners immediately tied things at 2-2 in the seventh after Skubal’s exit and prevailed on a walk-off single from Jorge Polanco in the bottom of the 15th inning in a near-five-hour thriller.
Still, Hinch had no regrets pulling Skubal, saying “he gave us everything he could.”
“After the fifth, I checked in on him how he was doing physically and emotionally, and we both knew that he had one (inning) left,” Hinch told reporters after the game.
The Mariners had no answer for the flamethrowing southpaw, who surrendered just one run on two hits while rattling off 13 strikeouts — the most ever from a starter in a winner-take-all postseason game.
At one point, he punched out seven straight hitters, setting another October record.
While they weren’t hitting, Seattle did a solid job working deep counts and ultimately stretched Skubal’s pitch count to 99 by the end of the sixth inning.
But that pitch? A 101-mph four-seamer pumped right by superstar catcher Cal Raleigh for a swinging strike three.
Hinch took that as a sign of him slowing down.
“He emptied his tank and obviously was emotional coming off the mound, and I think that signals exactly where we were in the game. He gave us everything he could,” Hinch said.
“He’s pitched on regular rest now three or four starts in a row. He empties his tank from pitch one. You know, it was an easy decision.”
Hinch had no way of predicting what would follow Skubal’s masterpiece — having to call on seven different pitchers to endure nine more innings — but it’s difficult not to question what could have happened if the most dominant pitcher in the game wasn’t pulled prematurely, especially after eclipsing seven innings in each of his previous postseasons starts.
But after nine additional innings, during which the bullpen only surrendered two earned runs, Hinch isn’t going to lose any more sleep over it.
A devastating loss? Absolutely. But one that he can live with.
“That was an incredible win for them,” Hinch said, “which means it was an incredible loss for us. But I wish them well in the next round. They earned it, and that was an epic game.”
The Seattle Mariners advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2001, meeting the Toronto Blue Jays for Game 1 on Sunday Night at Rogers Centre.
Source link
