Fueled by grit and belief, Tigers knot ALDS to force decisive Game 5

DETROIT -- For the second consecutive year, the Tigers will hand the ball to Tarik Skubal in a winner-take-all Game 5 of an American League Division Series. The path to get him there was unlike any that Tigers fans have seen in a long time.

“After being down 3-0, you almost felt like the season was coming to an end,” Skubal said after the Tigers' 9-3 win over the Mariners in Game 4 forced a return to T-Mobile Park. “For our guys to battle back and keep grinding was huge for us.”

What looked like a Mariners clincher at Comerica Park on Wednesday afternoon suddenly turned -- an RBI, a pitching change, a pinch-hit RBI, a near-homer, a game-tying single.

“For whatever reason, hitting is one of the most contagious things in this world,” said Dillon Dingler, whose fifth-inning RBI double helped ignite the three-run rally. “It was kind of cool to see the dominoes fall, you know?”

• Tigers-Mariners ALDS Game 5 FAQ (Fri., 8 p.m. ET, FOX)

Once Riley Greene’s first career postseason home run gave the Tigers their first lead since Game 1 of the series and ignited a four-run sixth inning, the last domino tumbled in what was Detroit's highest-scoring postseason game since Game 6 of the 1968 World Series.

"We believe," said Greene. "We’re never out of the game no matter what, and we always believe in ourselves."

It was a stunning result that ran opposite to the first half of the game. As manager A.J. Hinch churned through pitchers -- first pulling Casey Mize after three innings, then replacing Tyler Holton with Kyle Finnegan after three batters and three baserunners in the fourth -- the loudest noise from the crowd was the cheers from the Mariners’ family section. The Tigers faithful, having endured eight consecutive home losses since Sept. 7, turned to boos for the offense.

Hinch summoned all of his bullpen cards to try to keep the Tigers in the game. This wasn’t just bridging the innings to Will Vest at the end. This was bridging the gap to Skubal on Friday.

“The best chance for us to not only keep this game close but win this game,” Hinch said, “was to continue to throw different pitchers at them. It's been a successful strategy for us. Casey definitely could have gone out [for the fourth], but when the game dropped us off at [Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor] and we have our full allotment in the 'pen … we were all hands on deck. And so the aggressive move to the 'pen was to try to give them a lot of different looks.”

Hinch’s moves also bought time for his hitters to awaken. It took a while.

Once Cal Raleigh singled home Randy Arozarena for a 3-0 Mariners lead in the fifth, not even the between-innings singalong “Mr. Brightside” could get the Tigers fans going.

“We have been a good offensive club for a large majority of the season,” Hinch said, “but because of how we finished and some of the dry spells in September, it just tricks you into believing that we're not an offensive club, and we really are. We don't put those numbers up on the board by accident.

“So you need some confidence, you need a nice little boost. You need to connect at-bats. We talked about it before the game, where you need one and two and three good things to happen in a row.”

Spencer Torkelson’s leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth was one.

Dingler’s one-out double past a wayward Arozarena in left-center was two.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson arguably provided the third by pulling starter Bryce Miller.

“They were able to get a couple guys on,” Wilson said. “It just felt like the right time to go get [lefty] Gabe [Speier] and be ready for that left-handed pocket coming up.”

That pocket quickly flipped. Jahmai Jones pinch-hit for Parker Meadows and hit the first pitch he saw down the left-field line for another RBI double.

Javier Báez just missed a go-ahead home run down the left-field line, leaving third-base coach Joey Cora pounding his head as the ball veered foul. Instead, Báez settled for a ground ball through the middle and a tie game.

Speier stayed in to retire Kerry Carpenter, the hitter Wilson wanted to neutralize, then Colt Keith to keep the game tied. But when he stayed on for the sixth to face Greene, he hung a 1-0 slider that Greene crushed. The resulting Statcast-projected 454-foot homer was the second-longest of his career.

“I didn't really care how far the ball went,” Greene said. “It was a homer, and we put another run on the board, so that's all that mattered.”

It could also be heard through downtown.

“I saw the swing. I heard it,” Skubal said. “I thought the ball went to left-center, and I had enough time to figure out where the ball was, and that was way back. But big swing. That's the guy he is.”

By the time Báez got his home run five batters later, punctuating a four-run inning, the last rites for the Tigers had turned into a celebration. Rookie Troy Melton followed Finnegan and delivered three scoreless innings with three strikeouts on three days’ rest after his Game 1 start to earn the win.

The grit was back.

So was the belief.

In all best-of-five postseason series, teams that have trailed 2-1 before avoiding elimination in Game 4 have gone on to win Game 5 and the series 29 of 50 times (58%).

“If we all believe and we're all on the same page,” Greene said, “then it's pretty hard to stop us.”