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 when it comes to one of their most questionable picks of the season, manager AJ Hinch isn’t thinking about it.
The Tigers’ captain said it was an “easy decision” to pull the plug on ace Tarik Skubal’s historic gem just six innings into the club’s 15-inning, season-ending 3-2 heartbreaker against the Seattle Mariners in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Friday night.
The Mariners immediately tied the game at 2-2 in the seventh after Skubal’s departure and had the upper hand on a walk-off single by Jorge Polanco in the bottom of the 15th inning in a nearly five-hour thriller.
Still, Hinch had no regrets about pulling Skubal along, saying: “He gave us everything he could.”
“After the fifth, I checked to see how he was doing physically and emotionally, and we both knew he had one inning left,” Hinch told reporters after the game.
The Mariners had no answer for the flame-throwing southpaw, who gave up just one run on two hits while recording 13 strikeouts — the most ever by a starter in a winner-takes-all postseason game.
At one point, he retired seven consecutive hitters, setting another October record.
Although they weren’t hitting, Seattle did a good job with deep counts and eventually expanded Skubal’s pitch count to 99 by the end of the sixth inning.
But that field? A 100-mph four-seamer pumped to right by superstar catcher Cal Raleigh for a swinging strike three.
Hinch took that as a sign to slow down.
“He emptied his tank and was obviously emotional coming off the mound, and I think that just shows where we were in the game. He gave us everything he could,” Hinch said.
“He’s been on regular rest for three or four starts in a row now. He empties his tank from the first pitch. You know, it was an easy decision.”
Hinch had no way of predicting what would follow Skubal’s masterpiece — he had to rely on seven different pitchers to last nine more innings — but it’s hard not to wonder what might have happened if the most dominant pitcher in the game hadn’t been pulled out prematurely, especially after eclipsing seven innings in each of his previous postseasons starts.
But after nine extra innings, in which the bullpen gave up only two earned runs, Hinch won’t lose any sleep over it.
A devastating loss? Absolute. But one 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 the best of luck in the next round. They deserved it, and that was an epic match.”
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.
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