Sports
Guardians bracing for white-hot Tigers in ALDS
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tyler Holton (87) high-fives teammates in the dugout after pitching change against Chicago White Sox during the eighth inning at Comerica Park in Detroit on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians have played each other more than 2,300 times but never have they clashed in a series this important.
The Tigers and Guardians begin play in the American League Division Series on Saturday in Cleveland, and the winner of the best-of-five series will advance to the AL Championship Series.
Cleveland went 7-6 against the Tigers in the regular-season series but the last meeting was July 30, after Detroit parted with some veterans at the trading deadline.
Those moves sparked the club and Detroit won 31 of 42 games at one point en route to overtaking the collapsing Minnesota Twins for the sixth and final AL playoff berth. Then the Tigers upset the Houston Astros in a two-game wild-card sweep earlier this week.
“We know the Tigers have been hot for a long time now,” Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges said Friday. “It’s not just a playoff win. They’ve been the best team in baseball for a long time. And you know they’ve played us tough all year. So we have our hands full, but we’re prepared.”
The Guardians, of course, were consistently good all season long while earning the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. Cleveland thrived under first-year manager Stephen Vogt.
But Detroit vs. Cleveland in the postseason? This is a first — and Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the matchup is “good for baseball.”
“Detroit is a city that’s built around grit,” Hinch said Friday. “We say that all the time because we live it. Cleveland, obviously, a very good city, very proud of their sports teams, including the Guardians, who have been really good at getting to the playoffs and not too far removed from the World Series (2016).”
While the Tigers lack star power, Cleveland features one of the best players in the game in six-time All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez.
Ramirez annually torches Detroit pitching. He batted .347 with five homers and 12 RBIs this season to raise his career numbers to 33 homers and 122 RBIs. He has a .304 average.
In the regular season, Ramirez batted .279 with 39 homers, 39 doubles, 41 steals and 118 RBIs. Only Aaron Judge (144) and Shohei Ohtani (130) had more RBIs.
“It’s one of my favorite parts of having this job is getting to watch (Jose) every single night,” Vogt said. “We’re spoiled.”
Ramirez’s first at-bat on Saturday will come against Detroit left-hander Tyler Holton, who will serve as the club’s opener for the second straight game.
Holton (7-2, 2.19 ERA) recorded one out in the Tigers’ Game 1 win over Houston before serving in the opener role and pitching a perfect first inning in Game 2.
Part of the reason for the 28-year-old Holton handling the first inning is to face Ramirez and having the switch-hitter bat right-handed. But the Cleveland star has controlled his at-bats against Holton by going 3-for-7 with two doubles.
“He’s probably going to be the most important matchup,” Holton said. “I know we had intentionally walked him in past games and whatnot.”
Right-hander Tanner Bibee (12-8, 3.47 ERA) will start for the Guardians.
Bibee, 25, went 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in four starts against Detroit this season. Overall, he is 1-3 with a 5.28 ERA in six career outings against the Tigers.
Matt Vierling has two homers against Bibee and Kerry Carpenter has one.
The contest will be the first postseason outing for Bibee, and he feels he’s ready to handle the extra pressure.
“I don’t know if I’ll be more nervous, but I feel like there will definitely be a lot more adrenaline,” Bibee said. “I feel like the bigger crowds you have, I feel like naturally, wherever you are, I feel like you’re going to have more adrenaline, whether you’re facing more people or facing people with more people in the crowd, stuff like that. I feel like maybe a little bit.”
The slider is Bibee’s out pitch. Opponents batted .152 (25-for-164) with 58 strikeouts against his slider this season.
–Field Level Media
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Mystics' terrific trio in spotlight as Sun come to town
The Washington Mystics hope to pick up where they left off as their regular season resumes Tuesday against the visiting Connecticut Sun.,Heading into
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Sandy Alcántara Isn't Going Anywhere, Right? Marlins Face Trade Deadline Questions
On July 3, with the Miami Marlins emerging as surprise contenders in the NL East, owner Bruce Sherman appeared to remove ace Sandy Alcántara from the trade market by calling him a “franchise icon.”
Hey, that’s different.
A week later, when the Marlins reached 10 games over .500 for the first time in three years (and for just the third time since 2011), a story in The Athletic citing unnamed sources said Miami would be buyers before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Doubling down on the turnaround.
A week ago Thursday, with the All-Star break wrapping up, Sherman re-emerged to tell the Fish on First Podcast that Marlins president Peter Bendix “has a green light” to add to Miami’s roster in pursuit of winning the division.
Go Fish!
Since the Marlins fell hard, we’ll back of the Atlanta Braves in the division and all but erased from wild-card contention.
With the trading deadline days away, there’s still time for Sherman to say something else and have it blow up, but he must have learned his lesson by now. That’s too bad, because you know we were going to hear about the Home Run machine moving back inside the ballpark, re-installing the fish tank behind home plate, and hiring back the Clevelander Girls. Those dreams seem dead.
This is a fine kettle of Fish.
Fan reaction had been mixed to Sherman’s march of positivity. Some were excited to hear the team likely would be keeping a beloved figure like Alcántara, whose $21 million team option for 2027 isn’t expensive in Major League Baseball terms, but it is pretty pricey for the Marlins.
Other fans expressed little enthusiasm about the club being buyers at the deadline because the Marlins don’t have a long record of buying anything. It’s been a minute since the Giancarlo Stanton extension, or bringing in José Reyes and Mark Buehrle in free agency.
A few fans looked at the box scores amid Sherman’s boasts and noticed how the Fish were a-slip-slidin’ away in the standings.
While winning the division seems remote as ever, they’re still just 1 1/2 games back in the NL Wild Card race. The problem there is, they’re tied with the Washington Nationals, and also would have to climb over the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks to make the postseason field.
Further, if you read between the lines of what Sherman said, and what Ken Rosenthal wrote in The Athletic, it’s not like the Marlins were going to cash in their mediocre farm system to maximize their chances in the playoffs. Bendix wants a sustainable contender for years to come, and the Marlins have almost no history of being one of those. They’re more famous for their meteoric World Series titles in 1997 and 2003, followed by a relatively quick and dirty teardown.
Do they seem on the verge of another championship? They’re middle of the road in hitting, and a little better than that with pitching, but their depth is being tested right now. Right-hander Max Meyer was finally having a breakout season, but recently went on the injured list because of a neck strain. Eury Pérez has bounced back from an injury in May, but like Meyer, has a short history of pitching a lot of innings.
Unless this losing streak reaches 13 or 14 (or longer, like a reverse Red Sox), the Fish should keep looking on the market for another starter and a third baseman, and try to compete. Hey, the last thing we heard from Sherman was that they’re buyers. Bendix should just act like nothing has changed.
And, if Meyer returns before the end of the season with Pérez and Alcántara, you could do a lot worse for a rotation in a postseason series. And it’s only July. Plenty of time to put back the fish tank. Maybe see what the ex-Clevelander Girls are up to. The Home Run machine, that’s probably a no-go.
But Sandy’s staying no matter what, right?
Sports
Colts WR Alec Pierce to start camp on PUP list
Jan 4, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce (14) catches a touchdown pass against the Houston Texans during the first half at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images The Indianapolis Colts placed wide receiver Alec Pierce and rookie linebacker CJ Allen on the physically unable to perform list Monday ahead of the start of training camp.
Pierce’s recovery from offseason ankle surgery is still ongoing. He signed a four-year, $114 million contract to stay in Indianapolis this offseason.
Pierce, 26, is coming off his fourth and most productive NFL season, as he gained 1,003 yards on just 47 catches and caught six touchdowns in 15 games (14 starts). He led the league for the second straight year in yards per reception (21.3).
Colts head coach Shane Steichen told ESPN over the weekend that the team isn’t interested in rushing Pierce back in July or August.
“We’ll get him ramped up during training camp,” Steichen told ESPN. “The goal is to be ready for Week 1.”
Players on the PUP list during training camp can be removed at any time. But after the preseason roster cutdown takes place, players who are moved to reserve/PUP must miss the first four games of the season.
Allen, 21, was selected in the second round (No. 53 overall) by the Colts out of Georgia. He is still recovering from a calf injury.
The Colts also waived running back Lincoln Pare with a non-football injury designation.
–Field Level Media
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