Guardians and Tigers set to make history when they meet for first time in postseason

CLEVELAND — Despite playing each other countless times since the American League's inception in 1901, Cleveland and Detroit will meet for the first time in the postseason in Game 1 of the Division Series at Progressive Field on Saturday. "I think it's really fun," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "Those are the little things about baseball that are so beautiful, how you can play in the same league for 100-something years and never meet up in the postseason, and you finally do it, and in a year where we played each other very evenly. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I just love the game, and I love the history of the game. It'll be a fun weekend." The Guardians, who won seven of 13 regular-season meetings against the Tigers, send right-hander Tanner Bibee to the mound to kick off the festivities. Bibee, who finished third in Rookie of the Year voting last year, overcame a slow start to the season, eventually transitioning into credible ace to replace an injured Shane Bieber. "I think coming into the year he wanted to prove a lot to the world, that it wasn't just a good rookie year," catcher Austin Hedges said. "Obviously his rookie year was outstanding, and then what he did this year. I thought he grew up so quickly. A lot of guys like him that are really fiery and competitive tend to get emotional on the mound when things don't go their way, and I think early in the year he showed some tendencies to do that. "And, my goodness, he made an adjustment maybe 15 starts ago or so. And the calm, cool, collected guy is out there every pitch no matter what. The way he responds to adversity, looks like a 10-year vet out there." "It's been a great developmental year for Tanner," team president Chris Antonetti said. "I think we've seen it in the past, where guys can come in and have a really good first year and then their path either goes sideways or they go backwards, and I think what we've seen with Tanner is that he's continued to make progress as a major league pitcher. "And some of that's now evolved into the burden of leading a pitching staff and he's been the guy that we've turned to more often than not this year to help lead us moving forward. And he's embraced that role, and we're excited to hand the ball to him in Game 1." When Bibee last faced the Tigers in late July, Detroit was under .500 and considered a long shot to make the playoffs. What happened since has been one of the best stories in baseball from a team that has gotten hot at the right time. "You always think that throughout one point in the season a team will get hot, whether it's a short stretch or long stretch," Bibee said of the Tigers, who swept perennial playoff power Houston in the wild card round. "I think they were kind of playing baseball trying to find who they were, finding their identity. When they finally found their identity, they really kicked into gear. They've done a great job this past month and a half, two months. They're a really good team. "I think they are similarly built to us. Very grindy. They'll wear you down, wait till they get their pitch. They're not going to punch out a lot and going to put the ball in play." "They showed us all year long that they were gonna do something like this," Vogt said. "The way that they've been able to go on this run and get hot and play really good baseball down the stretch is a testament to all their players and their coaching staff and (manager) A.J. Hinch. They do a great job, they never go away and they're gonna make you go all 27 outs and put pressure on you. "Besides the fact that they're a really good team, they create tough matchups on both sides of the ball. With the versatility that they have, with their handedness, with their position flexibility, they can get good matchups vs. our pitching kind of whenever they want. On the flip side, they've got a very balanced, very talented bullpen that can match up with our lineup. So it's gonna be two very similar teams going at it." Vogt and the Guardians have written their own successful tale after the rookie manager took over for Terry Francona and guided Cleveland to a first-place finish on the heels of a losing season in Francona's final year. "I think we go into every year trying to be the best team we can be," Antonetti said. "The mindset we try to have is show up every day working to prepare for the game and trying to get better, and if every individual in the environment shows up with that mindset and tries to do that, you look up at the end of the year and see how many wins you have. "I think that's been a defining attribute for this team from Day 1. That's how this group showed up in spring training and our coaching staff and Vogter did a great job of cultivating that mindset and they showed up a lot every day this year and I think that put us in the position we are now." "We know the Tigers have been hot for a long time now. It's not just a playoff win. They've been the best team in baseball for a long time," Hedges said. "They've played us tough all year. So we have our hands full, but we're prepared. And the way we see it is it's not really about who we're facing, because ideally we still gotta beat three more teams to do what we're trying to do, and this is just the first stop for us to just go play our ball." That mindset has served the Guardians well thus far. "We've treated every game like a postseason game," Vogt said. "That's how we've managed it and that's how we've coached it. It's one day at a time. We just need to keep our same cadence, and we'll go for it. And our guys are going to have fun. This is an opportunity. We talked about how the hard part's over, navigating 162 games and finishing winning your division. The hard part is over. Now let's go have fun. Let's go compete and be who we are and show the world who we are." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on X @CAwesomeheimer.