Guards Ball, the Gritty Tigs and a rivalry tinged with respect

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CLEVELAND — When the matchup was set Sunday afternoon, everyone in this odd American League Central orbit shared a similar reaction.

“It was always going to be Cleveland, right?” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch outside the Fenway Park clubhouse.

“When we were playing them last (week),” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said at Progressive Field, “it was like, ‘We’re probably going to see you guys again in the playoffs. It’s just how it’s all going to work out.’”

Standing at his locker after Game 162, Tigers outfielder Riley Greene joked this matchup must have been drawn up in a writer’s room, sent down from on high.

“We’ve played Cleveland 50 times in the past four days,” he said.

OK, that’s an exaggeration. But the Tigers and Guardians have dueled six times in the past 14 days. They battled to a decisive Game 5 in last year’s American League Division Series. So many of these games have featured dramatic narrative arcs — think Kerry Carpenter clubbing home runs off dominant Guardians relievers and Steven Kwan tracking down fly balls that aren’t supposed to be caught.

There is José Ramírez, somehow seemingly always up to bat when it matters most. And there is Tarik Skubal, a pitcher with a lifetime 2.50 ERA against the Guardians, playoffs included, who has somehow suffered some of his most difficult moments here off Lake Erie.

“We know them well,” Guardians manager Stepehen Vogt said. “They know us well.”

“Familiarity,” Hinch said, “can be a blessing or a curse.”

Amid a division rivalry that has resulted in playoff meetings each of the past two years, something strange has happened. The Tigers and Guardians begin a three-game American League Wild Card Series on Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET. But instead of bad blood or bean balls, brawls or trash-talk, there’s humanity, mutual respect and a shared admiration between two teams built to be greater than the sum of their parts.

This is Detroit and Cleveland, Michigan and Ohio, the Tigers and Guardians at it again.

“I think just because you’re a rivalry doesn’t mean it has to be ugly, it has to be angry,” Vogt said. “We both want to win. We both play hard.”

As the truck rolled through the night, Tarik Skubal and Stephen Vogt talked.

The ace for the Tigers and the manager of the Guardians drove last Tuesday in Vogt’s truck to visit David Fry, the Guardians batter Skubal accidentally hit in the face with a 99 mph fastball only a few hours earlier.

How, exactly, did such a ride come to be?

“He was asking how he could get over to see him,” Vogt said, “and I was just about to leave and walk out to my car. I did what any other human being would do, and that’s offer someone a ride where they need to go.”

The drive to the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus likely took less than 15 minutes. In that short time, Vogt and Skubal talked about the play that left Fry with a broken nose and facial fractures. Skubal felt bad for throwing the pitch. Vogt felt bad for putting on the bunt sign that led to the situation.

“And we just kind of talked baseball, life, his kids, his family and kind of what’s going on there, my kids, my family,” Skubal said. “Just checking in on the human element of the game that goes overlooked a lot of the time.”

Strange as the pairing seemed, neither party said they found it awkward. Skubal and Vogt knew each other from across the field, had played against each other enough to feel a more personal connection. Skubal laughs at the way Vogt gives a football referee’s “no catch” signal any time a catcher drops a ball. Last year after Game 2 of the ALDS, when Skubal pitched seven shutout innings, Vogt stopped Skubal on the way to the bus.

“He said some really, really cool things that you don’t expect to be said to you,” Skubal said, “especially after (his) team loses in a game like that and we’re going home to our home field.”

Skubal visited Fry on Tuesday night along with Vogt and several Guardians players. Then Vogt dropped Skubal off at the Tigers’ team hotel.

Skubal has had some big moments against the Guardians, but some struggles as well. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)

In an alternative universe, Vogt might have been a member of the Tigers’ coaching staff. Vogt’s relationship with Hinch dates to 2015, when they got to know each other at the All-Star Game. Hinch was in his first year managing the Astros, named to Ned Yost’s All-Star coaching staff. Vogt was in his age-30 MLB season.

“Over the years, you develop these baseball friendships from the other side,” Hinch said. “There’s always the bro hug. There’s always the common respect among catchers and ex-catchers. You seem to know people even if you haven’t spent a ton of time with them.”

At the All-Star Game, Vogt and Hinch got to talk on a deeper level. Hinch was impressed with how Vogt saw the game, with how his mind processed information.

“You don’t want to tell him, ‘You should retire,’ because he’s an All-Star,” Hinch said. “But I started hitting on him about getting into coaching, and if he ever wanted anything to let me know.”

A few years later, Vogt’s career was finally coming to an end. Hinch said he “put on a full-court press” to get Vogt on his coaching staff in Detroit. Vogt ended up taking a job with the Seattle Mariners as a bullpen and quality control coach.

Only one year later, with Hinch among his advocates, Vogt became manager of the Guardians. Hinch was among a small group of managers who gathered at a Nashville bar during MLB’s Winter Meetings. He brought Vogt into the group, where they all shared advice and perspective.

“A.J. has always been great to me,” Vogt said. “It’s a very friendly rivalry. We have a very high level of respect for each other.”

Now Vogt is a candidate to win back-to-back American League Manager of the Year Awards. While Hinch is regarded as one of the game’s best tactical managers, Vogt has become a foil and a thorn in the Tigers’ side. Last year in the postseason, the chess match often unfolded to Hinch’s liking. Vogt’s Guardians still executed and won the series.

“The length of their lineup, where they put the ball in play and put pressure on you, they do a lot of different things,” Hinch said. “They usually get the platoon advantage. They are relentless with coming at you with small ball. It feels like every time that a big spot comes up, they get to insert José Ramirez.”

This season, Vogt has managed toe-to-toe with Hinch. The Tigers rank first in pinch-hit plate appearances. The Guardians rank second. Vogt’s club leans far more heavily on stolen bases, bunts and other instances of small ball. Where Hinch mostly remains true to his analytical Astros upbringing — the Tigers rank last in steals and have attempted only five sacrifice bunts — his team takes extra bases at a rate higher than any other team in the past 50 years.

The teams are not carbon copies. The Tigers rank 16th in payroll, the Guardians 25th. But both teams pride themselves on development. The Tigers are striving to match the Guardians’ reputation as a pitching factory. While Cleveland’s offense ranks 28th in runs scored, the Tigers have their future tied to young hitters such as Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter.

“These teams are very, very similar,” Vogt said. “We’re built similarly. We match up well. We have both lefties, righties in bullpens and very good starting pitching. It’s an equally matched two teams.”

Last year the Guardians were the hunted, and the Tigers were a team making a historic run. This year, the roles are somewhat reversed.

The Tigers spent 151 game days in first place. Then their historic collapse coincided with Cleveland’s mad dash to the finish line. The Tigers went 7-17 in September. The Guardians went 20-7, including 5-1 against the Tigers. Detroit finished with 87 wins, Cleveland with 88. The Tigers set a record for the worst September choke to blow a division lead. The Guardians set a record for the biggest division comeback.

Monday at Progressive Field, another one of the faces of this rivalry shared some perspective. Some of this goes beyond what has happened over the past two years.

“We’ve seen these guys going back to Double A,” Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter said. ‘They’ve grown as pitchers. We’ve grown as hitters.”

Carpenter, for instance, talked about the evolution of Hunter Gaddis, once a starter for the Akron RubberDucks and now a key member of Cleveland’s lockdown bullpen. Carpenter was once an unheralded 19th-round pick who just wouldn’t stop slugging home runs for the Erie SeaWolves.

Last year in the ALDS, Carpenter hit a mammoth home run off Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase. This season, with Clase on non-disciplinary leave as result of a gambling investigation, Carpenter popped a home run off Cade Smith, the right-hander who has led relievers in fWAR each of the past two seasons.

Carpenter is Hinch’s favorite chess piece, likely to play a key role with Cleveland slated to pitch three right-handed starters in Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee and Slade Cecconi.

“It’s definitely cool and a blessing,” Carpenter said. “There are a lot of guys in here who have targets on their backs.”

Carpenter turned his shoulders and motioned to the locker behind him, where Skubal’s glove rested atop a wooden shelf.

“Probably no one more than this guy,” he said.

Skubal will start Tuesday’s Game 1 for the Tigers. Each of his two previous starts came against the Guardians, both Cleveland victories despite Skubal’s best efforts. Among the questions that will determine this series: Can Cleveland really slay Skubal three times in a row?

Even in assessing the other team’s ace, Guardians infielder Brayan Rocchio paid Skubal a compliment.

“Obviously he’s tough, but he likes to compete,” Rocchio said through an interpreter. “He’s one of my favorite pitchers.”

The Tigers face a Cleveland staff that has been straight nails all September. The Guardians had a 2.61 team ERA over the final month of the season. Williams, Bibee and Cecconi have a combined 1.31 ERA in 48 innings against the Tigers in 2025.

Weak as Cleveland’s lineup looks on paper, the Guardians scrapped their way to the AL Central title.

Brutal as the Tigers’ second-half slide was, here they are, playing the Guardians one more time with everything on the line.

(Top photo: Jason Miller/Getty Images)

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