CLEVELAND — Riley Greene hit a single to right field, Spencer Torkelson refused to chase a slider off the plate for a pivotal 10-pitch walk, and Kerry Carpenter cashed in with a three-run home run to right field.
The Detroit Tigers, thanks to their top three position players, took a first-inning lead and never looked back. The homer from Carpenter — his 17th in his 80th game of 2023 — fueled the Tigers in Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians in the third of four games at Progressive Field.
Javier Báez capped off the offensive production with a solo home run, his first homer since July 19, in the seventh.
“At the time, the tack-on run felt good, and at the end, it proved to be the difference,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It was nice that he could get a pitch to hit and drive it.”
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Facing right-hander Tanner Bibee, the Tigers (56-67) were quick to strike for a 3-0 advantage in the first inning with Greene’s one-out single off a slider, Torkelson’s two-out walk and Carpenter’s two-out home run off a changeup.
Torkelson nearly hit a home run in the third inning but, as confirmed by replay review, the ball didn’t clear the 19-foot wall in left field. Torkelson had to settle for a 373-foot double, his 27th two-bagger in 121 games.
The Tigers stranded Torkelson when Carpenter struck out and Miguel Cabrera grounded out.
“I’m still not sure if it was a homer or not,” Hinch said. “It had a funky bounce. We had them look at it. That’s why the first call matters just as much as the video because if you can’t tell, you can’t reward him.”
Bibee, a 24-year-old rookie who entered with a 2.90 ERA in 19 starts, allowed three runs on five hits and one walk with six strikeouts across five innings, throwing 54 of 87 pitches for strikes. He used more sliders (40%) than fastballs (36%) and generated 10 whiffs.
In the seventh, Báez — who returned from the bereavement list for Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader — extended the Tigers’ lead to 4-2. The 30-year-old tagged a third-pitch fastball from right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin for an opposite-field home run to right-center.
Báez has eight homers in 111 games.
Torkelson, 23, finished 2-for-2 with two walks.
“He’s in control of all his at-bats, which is good,” Hinch said.
The Tigers trail the Guardians by 2½ games for second place in the American League Central, with the Minnesota Twins atop the division, and can win the four-game series — and clinch the season series against the Guardians for the first time since 2015 — with a victory in Sunday’s finale.
Alex Lange’s big moment
Right-handed reliever Will Vest was called out of the bullpen to protect a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning.
That didn’t happen.
After the first out, the Guardians put together three hits in a row: Bo Naylor (double), Myles Straw (single) and Steven Kwan (single). The single from Kwan trimmed the Tigers’ lead to 4-3 and ended Vest’s outing.
The Tigers turned to right-handed reliever Alex Lange, formerly their preferred option to finish games, for a dangerous mid-game matchup with switch-hitting José Ramírez, a five-time All-Star and one of the best hitters in baseball.
“We don’t like anybody against José Ramírez,” Hinch said. “If you’re going to go after him, the best stuff you have is the best stuff you can give to him. I thought he did a really good job of disguising his breaking ball and not overexposing it.”
Lange kept his pitches away from Ramírez, a switch-hitter batting from the left side of the plate, and induced a lineout to left field. But Lange, who lost his spot as the de facto closer after three straight appearances with three walks apiece, walked Kole Calhoun to load the bases.
He bounced back from the walk by getting Oscar Gonzalez to ground out with a fourth-pitch curveball below the strike zone. Catcher Jake Rogers saved at least one run when he picked the second pitch of the at-bat, a down-and-away curveball in the dirt, to keep the ball from traveling to the backstop.
Lange, who posted a 7.40 ERA in 20⅔ innings from June 4-Aug. 7, now has completed three consecutive appearances without allowing a run.
“He’s certainly regained every bit of the opportunities in the big moments,” Hinch said. “We can talk closer all you want. I think that was a critical out that counts just as much as the 27th out.”
Left-hander Andrew Vasquez stranded two runners — an eight-pitch single and a four-pitch walk — with three straight outs in the eighth, including an inning-ending strikeout of Straw. Right-hander Jason Foley sent down Kwan, Ramírez and Calhoun in order in the ninth inning to end the game.
Foley, who struck out Kwan and Calhoun, earned his seventh save.
“My goal was to fill it up and compete,” Vasquez said. “I made a slight adjustment just trying to throw the ball over the plate a little bit more. It was more of an eyesight (change) moving the target a little bit. I was having the same miss pattern and needed to shift the zone over a little bit.”
Matt Manning’s start
Right-hander Matt Manning allowed two runs (one earned run) on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts in six innings. He ended his 12th start, improving his ERA to 4.31, by winning a 12-pitch battle with Will Brennan.
The 25-year-old threw 54 of 87 pitches for strikes.
“I fought myself for the first two innings and grinded out there,” Manning said. “Once I had that quick third, I got into a rhythm, got my legs back, got my delivery, and after that, I stepped on the gas and was on the attack after that.”
Calhoun rocked Manning’s middle-middle fastball for a solo home run to right-center field in the first inning, but the Guardians didn’t threaten again until a pair of errors in the fifth inning created trouble.
After Gabriel Arias’ single, Bo Naylor ripped a double over Greene in center field. The relay throw from Greene nearly flew over Báez’s glove, which allowed Arias to score and cut the Tigers’ margin to 3-2. Later in the sequence, Naylor advanced to third base on a fielding error by Rogers at home plate. The catcher dropped the ball from Báez and couldn’t find it in the dirt.
With a runner on third base, Manning registered three consecutive ground-ball outs against Straw, Kwan and Ramírez to prevent the runner from scoring.
“It was a close game,” Manning said. “It didn’t matter if I walked him, so I was going to attack them on the edges. I think I threw three straight changeups to Kwan to get him out. Just trying to keep that run from scoring was all I was thinking about.”
Manning used 50 four-seam fastballs (57.4%), 20 sliders (23%), 11 changeups (12.6%) and six curveballs (6.9%). All three of his swings and misses came from his fastball. He also picked up 17 called strikes.
The Guardians had a 96.3 mph average exit velocity on 21 balls in play, but most of the contact stayed on the ground.
“A lack of swing-and-miss is a function of Cleveland,” Hinch said. “That’s what they do. They make contact. The ball on the ground is certainly well-located pitches and pitching to a gameplan where we can control contact a little bit.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.