DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Grittiness is this year’s slogan for Detroit, which continued its success on the field by sweeping Houston in two games. Detroit scored four runs in the eighth inning to take the series, 5-2, dethroning a dynasty in the Wild Card Playoff series.
With the bases loaded in the eighth inning and down one run, Kerry Carpenter scored on a wild pitch to tie the game with one out. After Riley Green struck out for the second out, Andy Ibanez produced a pinch-hit double clearing the bases for the 5-2 lead.
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“Our city is built on grit. That’s what it is. I remember saying that I wanted to have a team that this city is proud of. I think the city is pretty proud of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and the fight that this team shows,” said Detroit manager A.J. Hinch. “This is what you play for. Baseball’s great.”
Hinch then added on Ibanez quoting, “He was ready and you’ve got to believe. It’s one of the toughest relievers he’s going to face all year. He comes through with the biggest hit of the year, but nothing new.”
Sean Guenther set down the Astros in order in the bottom of the eighth, going on record for the win. Will Vest finished off Houston with a one-two-three inning, ending the game and the Astros season.
Ibanez followed, saying, “We just put in the hard work to make the results come. I think it’s everybody, all the players, the staff coming together. And we just needed to believe. That’s the one thing we were missing. We believed coming into the series and we ended up beating a great team in the Astros, and now we’re moving on.”
Seven different players had hits along with seven pitchers in the game. That shows how gritty Detroit is as the “team” ground out the win. Detroit is now 86-76 and 10 games above .500 improving on their 78-84 record in 2023. It was just five years ago that Detroit lost 114 games and now they are in the AL Division Series vs. Cleveland.
Detroit travels to Cleveland to start a five-game series on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The game will air on TBS.
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