Alan Kornspan
Believeland Media
The Guardians won a thriller on Thursday night as they defeated the Detroit Tigers, 5-4, in Game 4 to bring the American League Division Series back to Cleveland for a winner take all Game 5.
“Just such a great baseball game,” said Guardians manager Steven Vogt after the Game 4 victory. "I feel like every game this series has been a good baseball game, and for our guys to score first, they come back, take the lead, we come back, back and forth, back and forth.” Vogt continued, “And just tremendous job by our bullpen, guys off the bench, defense. It was just a well-played baseball game on both sides, and a lot of fun.”
As Vogt mentioned, the Guardians scored first.
In fact, after not scoring for 20 consecutive innings, the Guardians scored in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead when Lane Thomas singled to drive in Steven Kwan from second base.
The Tigers came right back to tie the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning.
The game remained tied until the top of the 5th inning when the Guardians took a 2-1 lead on a Jose Ramirez 418-foot home run over the left field wall.
Guardians manager Steven Vogt said that the home run by Ramirez in the fifth inning was uplifting for the team.
“And for Jose to get that homer, that had to feel so good for him, and it energized our dugout like you wouldn't believe,” said Vogt.
Added designated hitter David Fry,
“Jose is the man, and he kind of got us going. He's not the most emotional guy, but to see him get fired up after that homer kind of got the boys going.”
The Tigers then tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning on Zach McKinistry's home run.
After the Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Guardians took a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning on a pinch hit, 2-run home run by David Fry.
Vogt was asked why he brought Fry in the game to pinch hit since Fry had been 0-3 with 3 strikeouts against Tigers pitcher Beau Brieske.
Vogt said that he brought Fry in because that allowed a right handed batter to face a right handed pitcher.
“That's more about the left on left versus right on right (matchup), and David has been very good versus right-hand pitching and Beau Brieske has pitched really well against us all year," said Vogt. "And for us in that moment, we wanted to get the right-on-right matchup, and David Fry is one of the best baseball players in this league.”
After the game, Fry talked about hitting the pinch hit home run.
“I was just trying to get a pitch to hit, and luckily fought off some pitches with two strikes and was able to barrel something up.” Fry continued, “You dream about it as a kid and think about it all the time, and in the off-season when you're working on stuff, and then it happens and it goes by real quick. I remember looking at the dugout and high-fiving Sandy, and then just black out, and then you're in the dugout and cheering with the boys. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.”
In the top of the ninth inning, the Guardians scored a critical insurance run when Fry executed a perfect safety squeeze bunt to score Brayan Rocchio from third base to give the Guardians a 5-3 lead.
In the post-game press conference, Fry provided a somewhat humorous exchange between him and Vogt about how the decision to lay down the safety squeeze unfolded.
Vogt kind of came up to me and was like, hey, how confident are you in getting the bunt down?," said Fry. "And I told him I wasn't a very good hitter in high school, so I'm pretty confident; I had to bunt a lot. He goes, all right. Just keep an eye on Rougy for signs. And then right before I went up, he said, go ahead and do it first pitch, and luckily I got the run in.”
Vogt also discussed the decision to have Fry Bunt.
“Our guys have worked on it (bunting) all year," said Vogt. "All of our guys work on bunting. It's a tool that we need to use to tack on that extra run to add on to the lead. And for David, when I talked to him, I said, Hey, do you want to do this? He said, Oh, yeah, I've bunted a lot in my life. I'm confident.”
The run on the safety squeeze would turn out to be crucial as the Guardians gave up a run in the ninth with closer Emmanuel Clase on the mound.
For the game, the Guardians were led offensively by Steven Kwan (3-5), and Lane Thomas (2-4, RBI), and David Fry (1-1, HR, and 3 RBI).
With the 5-4 victory, the Guardians have evened the ALDS at 2-2.
The deciding Game 5 will take place at 8:08pm on Saturday night in Cleveland at Progressive Field.
The winner of game 5 will take on the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
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