With the wildcard round officially over, the American League Divisional Series is now set. The New York Yankees will be squaring off versus the plucky Kansas City Royals. In the other series, the Cleveland Guardians will be taking on AL Central foe the Detroit Tigers.
This piece will break down the series with an eventual prediction being made as to which team will ultimately advance to the ALCS.
Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Indians
These two teams have tremendous familiarity with one another. From that standpoint, Cleveland probably didn’t want to see Detroit upset Baltimore en route to the divisional series. The Tigers are the hottest team in the American League at this point, and one can make the strong case they’re functioning as well as anyone in the entire playoffs. Manager AJ Hinch has constructed a very resilient team rooted in high-leverage pitching, defense, versatility, and timely hitting.
Cleveland quietly had a very good year. Stephen Vogt has proven to be an excellent manager. Jose Ramirez is still criminally underrated. The bullpen is elite, and the starting pitching is more than capable of leading the Guardians to a World Series appearance.
In some respects, these teams are very similar aside from the geographical commonalities. This series will come down to how well Detroit can manufacture runs. At the same time, the Tigers will have to prevent Ramirez from going off and carrying Cleveland offensively.
Cleveland will try to shorten the game to get to its most obvious strength — the bullpen. Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, and Cade Smith all have ERAs under 2.00. Closer Emmanuel Clase is the best in the game. He’s sporting a microscopic 0.61 ERA. Clase notched 47 saves in the regular season, and allowed only 39 hits in 74.1 IP.
Detroit’s pitching staff is buoyed by the best starter in the series — and perhaps the playoffs as a whole — in Tarik Skubal. He’s gifted enough to carry this team in a short series. You can envision a scenario where he takes the ball multiple times. Detroit’s bullpen is also deep, and Hinch has shown a proclivity for manipulating innings quite well when matching up with opposing lineups.
Cleveland might have more overall talent, though there’s something special going on in Detroit. This team is dialed in, and the energy around it is infectious. One can see a scenario where the momentum continues. Skubal is the type of ace that teams fear in a short series. As such, the Cinderella story will continue for the Tigers.
Prediction: Tigers in 4