Gritty Tigers rally late to oust Astros in stunning sweep

HOUSTON -- The Tigers came within nine outs of turning manager A.J. Hinch’s self-professed “pitching chaos” into their first postseason series win since 2013. Instead, they turned batting chaos into a comeback and a sweep of their American League Wild Card Series.

And with Wednesday’s 5-2 win at Minute Maid Park, fueled by Andy Ibáñez's pinch-hit bases-clearing double off closer Josh Hader, the Tigers ended the Astros’ run of seven consecutive trips to the AL Championship Series. They did it with Houston’s former manager, whose transition into mad scientist -- with pitching changes and pinch-hits -- has turned baseball’s youngest team into a sudden postseason force.

“I don’t know who,” Hinch told his team before popping champagne bottles in the visitors' clubhouse, “but somebody let the Tigers get hot.”

The Tigers will face the AL Central-rival Guardians in a best-of-five AL Division Series beginning Saturday afternoon in Cleveland.

Nobody on the hitting side better exemplifies the way Hinch plays matchups than Ibáñez, the only player age 30 or older on Detroit’s 26-man WC Series roster. Claimed from Texas two years ago, the right-handed-hitting infielder spent all season in a specific role: Beat left-handed pitching. Sometimes that meant a spot in the lineup against lefty starters. Other times, it involved waiting on the bench for a matchup against a lefty reliever, which is where he found himself Wednesday.

It worked brilliantly for much of the season, but Ibáñez went 7-for-45 with two RBIs over his final 24 games after Aug. 28. His last RBI came Sept. 10. Still, amidst Detroit’s late-season charge, he got the opportunities.

“His confidence is key for us,” Hinch said, “but our confidence in him is equally important. This is how we’ve done it all year. This isn't a different style because we're in the playoffs or chasing a win.”

While right-hander and native Detroiter Hunter Brown chewed through the Tigers' lefty-heavy lineup for six innings Wednesday -- his lone blemish coming on a Parker Meadows solo homer in the top of the sixth -- Ibáñez prepared for closer Josh Hader. Though Houston’s bullpen had two other southpaws in Caleb Ferguson and Bryan King, plus potential Game 3 starter Yusei Kikuchi, Hader was the big worry.

“I was getting ready from the second inning,” Ibáñez said through translation from Tigers manager of Spanish communications Carlos Guillen. “We were talking about, ‘Let's go to the cages. Let's get ready, because at some point in the game, they're going to bring a lefty.’”

No hitter on the Tigers prepares for situations like Ibáñez, who has been known to stand at the top of the dugout steps with a bat with his spot several batters away, just so he can time a pitcher. He once photobombed a Tarik Skubal in-game interview early this season by walking into a camera angle, bat in hand.

While Ibáñez and Wenceel Pérez prepared in the cages, opener Tyler Holton led a procession of four relievers through six scoreless innings, including five outs from Game 1 closer Beau Brieske to protect a 1-0 lead. No. 2 prospect Jackson Jobe entered for the seventh in his third Major League appearance, but a hit-by-pitch, a Jeremy Peña single and a Mauricio Dubón bunt single loaded the bases for a Jonathan Singleton RBI and a Jose Altuve sac fly.

• Tigers turn 'pitching chaos' into a recipe for postseason success

Sean Guenther, the Tigers’ third lefty of the afternoon, prevented further damage with a Kyle Tucker double play to end the seventh that loomed larger once Kerry Carpenter and Matt Vierling hit back-to-back one-out singles off Ryan Pressly in the top of the eighth. Pressly’s wild pitch in the dirt to Riley Greene bounced to the backstop as Carpenter dashed home with the tying run.

Hinch left the switch-hitting Pérez out of the lineup to have him as a matchup-proof pinch-hitter. Pérez was springing out of the dugout to bat for Spencer Torkelson following Colt Keith’s two-out walk when the Astros turned to Hader.

“Against Pressly, we were going to try to get as many lefties as we could, see if we could get a spinning breaking ball,” Hinch said. “I was pulling Tork back to make the decision as Joe was walking out. When Hader came in, it changed the order in which we were going to go. I put Wenceel back on the bench, and it went Tork and Ibáñez for the two at-bats.”

Torkelson drew a four-pitch walk, loading the bases and bringing Ibáñez out of the dugout to pinch-hit for Zach McKinstry.

Hader fired five consecutive sinkers; Ibáñez fouled off three and took another for a ball, timing it up. The fifth was just high enough for Ibáñez to rip into the left-field corner.

“As soon as I made the contact, I was just pushing for the ball to be fair,” Ibáñez said. “Most importantly, I was pushing for the runners on the base to go, go, go, go, go.

“As soon as I got to second base, I saw the Tigers fans on top of our dugout, and it was a very touching and emotional moment.”

It was the Tigers’ first go-ahead pinch-hit base hit in postseason history, and it sealed Detroit’s first playoff win when trailing in the eighth inning since Game 3 of the 1987 ALCS, when Pat Sheridan hit a two-run homer off the Twins' Jeff Reardon.

Ibáñez’s hit, coming so quickly after Detroit lost the lead, felt bigger. And not just because it ended Houston’s 47-game postseason winning streak when leading going into the eighth inning.

“We have good players out here,” Ibáñez said. “Most importantly, we have this connection, this togetherness that makes us like a band of brothers all together supporting one another, and we push for each other and keep working all the time just to get the results.”