The Astros can't understand the Tigers' pitching chaos

The Houston Astros knew it was coming. They just didn't know WHO came.

The Tigers played the game they've played so well since mid-August, the matchup game in which their pitchers swept the Astros out of the wild-card series, capped with Wednesday's 5-2 win at Minute Maid Park.

The Tigers used seven pitchers in the Game 2 win, none of whom faced the same Astros batter twice.

It looked like so many Tigers games had heated up since mid-August when manager AJ Hinch and his staff turned traditional baseball on its head. This presents problems for opposing managers, who have to decide whether to field the opening night lineup that might only throw one inning or who they think might be the first out of the bullpen. Hinch now describes his pitching plans as “chaos,” and the Astros couldn’t handle it.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “We talked about it before the game started. So it presents challenges for us as a team because you see different weapons, different angles, different things and different game situations. You could come up with men in scoring position. With the bases empty, we'll have to adjust in the last two games.

“But in baseball, you take your hat off to them and move forward.”

The Tigers only have one traditional starter these days, Cy Young lock Tarik Skubal, who was dominant in the Game 1 win. The Tigers did not announce their Game 2 starter before Game 1 as usual because Major League Baseball likes to introduce the next day's starter to the media. Instead, the Tigers portrayed Reese Olson as a pseudo-player, with their reputation as a pitching team that may lack big names but is big on big things.

Olson didn't even pitch in the two-game series. But everyone else did, except Casey Mize.

Tyler Holton was the starter on Wednesday, announced after Tuesday's game, followed by Brenan Hanifee, Brent Hurter, Beau Brieske, Jackson Jobe (with just two games and four innings on his major league resume), Sean Guenther and Will Vest.

Holton, Brieske and Guenther didn't allow a hit. The Astros only had 12 hits in the series, one of which was for extra bases. The Tigers' pitchers had 15 hits in 18 innings, while Vest had five hits in 2.2 innings over the two games.

The Astros had made it to the American League Championship Series seven years in a row, but didn't this year, thanks to a Tigers team that not only confused a fan base that was eight games under .500 and ten games back in the wild card race The beginning of August saw the most unlikely run the sport has seen in recent memory.

The Astros led in the series for about five minutes after scoring two runs off Jobe in the seventh inning. Even in that inning, no one hit the ball hard, and the Astros ran a double play in the bottom of the inning.

“You have to give these plays credit,” Espada said of a Tigers team that also plays the matchup game offensively, and it came with a big hit Wednesday when reserve Andy Ibañez hit a three-run double for 19 The green light was given by US dollar replacement Josh Hader. “They’ve been playing pretty good baseball since mid-August. I give them a lot of credit. They played well and performed well.”

The Tigers play the Guardians in the American League Division Series starting Saturday in Cleveland.

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