Everybody was singing and chanting and waving orange towels.
“Let’s go, Tigers!” the Comerica Park playoff-record crowd chanted. “Let’s go, Tigers!”
Tyler Holton was on the mound. Ninth inning. Facing Austin Hedges.
Welcome to the first playoff game in Comerica Park in a decade.
And it didn’t disappoint.
Holton struck out Hedges. Fireworks went off. Smoke shot into the air. And Paws was waving his flag.
What a win.
What a complete team victory. The Tigers got great pitching, some timely hitting and some great defense in a 3-0 victory over Cleveland in Game 3 of the ALDS , as the Tigers took a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-five affair.
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The two teams will play Game 4 at 6:08 p.m. (TNT) at Comerica Park, and a win will send the Tigers to the ALCS , which begins Monday in either Kansas City, Missouri, or New York.
This was the first home postseason game since Oct. 5, 2014 — 3,657 days of waiting — and it featured a bit of everything.
The Tigers' hot hitters stayed hot — rookie Parker Meadows got a hit for the fifth straight game, and Jake Rogers came through again, getting another hit and scoring a run.
Cold hitters suddenly found hits — both Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson had huge hits, driving in runs.
The Tigers flashed some impressive defense — Matt Vierling climbed the ladder and made a huge defensive play.
And A.J. Hinch unleashed his “ pitching chaos ,” using six pitchers in the shutout.
A team victory in every sense.
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The defensive gem
Hinch turned to Will Vest in the top of the seventh.
With two on and two outs, Vest faced designated hitter David Fry in a huge moment. The tension was building.
And Fry crushed a line drive to the left side of the infield — it looked like a two-run RBI.
But Vierling jumped into the air, reaching as high as he could reach and snagged the ball way over his head, coming down pumping his fist: “Yeah!”
Oh, that’s not enough for you?
How about Parker Meadows flying across the outfield, snagging a line drive in the eighth inning.
The arms race
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch unleashed “pitching chaos” once again.
The truly amazing part? He started off with a pair of rookies.
Keider Montero, who wasn’t even on the playoff roster for the AL wild-card series win over Houston, got the start and cruised through the first inning with just six pitches, five of them strikes.
Most importantly, he got José Ramírez to fly out on one pitch.
Then, Hinch took it a step further. The Guardians had six lefties in their batting order and a couple of switch-hitters. So, Hinch brought in Brant Hurter, a lefty.
Then, the cat and mouse game started — all because of how Hinch had used his bullpen. Cleveland brought in Jhonkensy Noel as a pinch-hitter in the second inning. But Hurter got the outfielder they call "Big Christmas" to give a gift of his own, a flyout to center.
And Hurter got Bo Naylor to line out to third.
Hurter got unlucky in the third inning. Steven Kwan hit a ball up the middle that deflected off Hurter and Trey Sweeney couldn’t make a play, throwing the ball away and allowing Kwan to advance to second.
Hinch intentionally walked Ramírez — for the sixth time this season.
And Hurter got Naylor to ground out to first.
Cleveland burned another pinch-hitter in the third inning, Fry, who Hurter struck out.
More importantly, Hinch was getting Guardians manager Stephen Vogt to make moves that would hamstring him later in the game.
Hurter, who was pitching in Double-A Erie last year, went 3⅓ innings, scattering five hits, but holding them scoreless. He was relieved by Beau Brieske, who went two innings, recording five strikeouts and no runs.
When Brieske walked off, he got a standing ovation.
And he applauded the fans before ducking into the dugout.
And Will Vest was brilliant, too, throwing 1⅓ innings of scoreless ball in the seventh and eighth innings.
Hot hitters stay hot
Meadows came into this game with an interesting stat: He had recorded a hit in each of his first four career postseason games, the first Tiger to do that since Don Kelly in 2011.
And then, he made it five straight by opening the game with a sharp single.
Then Greene knocked him in, shooting a splitter, low and away, through a hole in the the infield for an early 1-0 lead.
Another hot hitter? Catcher Jake Rogers, who came into the game hitting .308 in the postseason. And he continued the heat, leading off the third inning with a double.
After Vogt intentionally walked Kerry Carpenter (the hero of Game 2), Vierling knocked in Rogers with a sac fly to left.
Cold hitters contributing
In the sixth inning, the Tigers scored again, when a cold hitter suddenly came through.
Spencer Torkelson opened the postseason 0-for-14.
But he hit a huge double down the left-field line in the sixth inning, driving in Colt Keith, as the Tigers took a 3-0 lead.
MORE FROM JEFF SEIDEL: Tigers' Trey Sweeney was called a throw-in for Jack Flaherty trade. Give me a break
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com . Follow him on X @seideljeff . To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: One game away! Detroit Tigers blank Cleveland in ALDS Game 3, 3-0, now a win from ALCS
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