The Detroit Tigers earned some respect, even though they lost to the Seattle Mariners and failed to advance to the American League Championship Series.
The 2025 Tigers will be remembered for blowing a record 15 1/2 game lead to the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central, but they didn’t let that unfortunate truth end their season either. Avoiding elimination on several occasions, the Tigers came back to beat the Guardians in the AL Wild Card round, and they continued to push the Mariners to the brink in Game 5 of the AL Division Series.
They just couldn’t get the extra base hit they needed to extend their season, losing 3-2 to the Mariners in 15 innings Friday night.
In the grand scheme of baseball postseason history, Tigers-Mariners was perhaps as frustrating as it was exhilarating. A little less pain and a little more hitting at T-Mobile Park should have been in order. But maybe the pitchers just wouldn’t allow it.
Left-hander Tarik Skubal pitched as well as anyone, and he threw as much as he could, mowing down the Mariners with 13 strikeouts in six innings. Tigers manager AJ Hinch told reporters that Skubal “emptied the tank” after the sixth. Throwing 99 total pitches isn’t a sexy closeout, historically speaking, and it’s irritating for old heads who demand pitching lines like Jack Morris’s in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, but that’s what Skubal had to give with maximum effort.
What he couldn’t do: get an RBI.
The Mariners pitchers had something to say about the Tigers being 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, as well as Detroit’s general inability to get another big hit no matter where the potential baserunners were.
No Mariners pitcher was Skubal’s equal, but manager Dan Wilson also used three different pitchers from the starting rotation to get his team through Game 5. Right-hander George Kirby allowed one run and three hits over the first five innings, and Logan Gilbert pitched two scoreless innings after Mariners closer Andres Muñoz finished the ninth.
The last Mariners starting pitcher standing: right-hander Luis Castillo, who was assigned to start Game 1 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday night. Castillo, the M’s seventh pitcher, retired Detroit’s final four batters.
Another starting pitcher, Bryce Miller, would be in the bullpen and standing by. Bryan Woo probably would have been too, but he was still recovering from a pectoral muscle strain and wasn’t ready. It was literally all hands on deck for the Mariners.
Hinch turned to Jack Flaherty, who, like Skubal, made 31 regular-season starts. Flaherty had to battle command issues to go through two scoreless innings of relief. Keider Montero and Troy Melton, who made a combined 16 starts in the regular season, pitched three scoreless innings of relief.
Tigers pitchers issued a total of seven walks, but allowed only eight hits (including six singles) in 14 1/3 innings. Each of the walks came after Skubal left the game.
And to all the experts, professionals and others, who call for more attempts at sacrifice: do you really want the two teams to make more outings? On purpose?
The Tigers may have looked like Skubal and 25 other guys, but you don’t go through an entire MLB regular season with the best record in the league at some point in every month if you only have one player.
The Tigers weren’t good enough to get where they wanted to go. The World Series should be the norm, Skubal emphasized in his postgame comments. But the Tigers were also much more than the team that blew a 15 1/2 game lead.
Now, if breeding Skubal in a lab isn’t enough, how about cloning Kerry Carpenter?
