Controversy struck quickly in Game 1 of the Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Guardians wild-card playoff series Tuesday at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.
And it must’ve felt like déjà vu for Tigers ace Tarik Skubal.
In the bottom of the fourth inning of their 2025 MLB playoff series, the Guardians scored in the most Guardians-esque way with #GuardsBall.
Angel Martínez opened the inning with a dink single to second baseman Gleyber Torres that barely made it past the mound, but was impossible to get to. Then Skubal walked superstar José Ramírez, but followed that up with back-to-back strikeouts. That’s when controversy struck.
Guardians shortstop Gabriel Arias barely made contact with the ball, but again it took a very favorable Guardians’ bounce, shooting way up in the air over Skubal’s head. By the time Skubal got a handle on the ball, Martínez was rounding third.
There was a bang-bang play at the plate, and Martínez was originally called out before a review determined he was clearly safe.
While the overturned call was not all that debatable, it was incredible that the Guardians had once again gotten to Skubal without getting the ball out of the infield, just as they did in Skubal’s last start in Cleveland a week ago.
In addition, umpires ruled Ramírez was able to stay at third base after advancing during the play at the plate.
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The next batter, Brayan Rocchio, attempted to bunt, but this time Skubal made a nice defensive play to get out of the inning.
We’ll see how big of a moment this ends up being in a crucial Game 1.
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Here is a look at the similar situation from last Tuesday when the Tigers and Guardians played at Progressive Field, and Cleveland scored three runs without a ball leaving the infield:
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Guardians do it again to Tigers and Tarik Skubal on wild play in Game 1 of playoffs
Reporting by Andrew Birkle, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
