Guardians beat Tigers to complete sweep

DETROIT — As the Cleveland Guardians completed a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Thursday, it was hard not to hear Paul Simon's voice singing, "Slip-sliding away." The Guardians, with a 3-1 win in the finale, have won seven in a row and are within 3 1/2 games of Central Division-leading Detroit with nine games left. "We know we have to take this one day at a time," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "We're here to win one game and then we'll see what happens tomorrow. This group of guys, through everything they've been through, they've not lost the faith that we're a very good team and that we can do this. They've stuck together, they believe in each other and they show up every day ready to win." Jose Ramirez, a certified Tiger-killer who had been relatively quiet through the first two games, got loud at exactly the right time for the Guardians. He clubbed a 1-0 cutter from rookie Troy Melton with one on in the seventh inning, sending it over the wall in right field and breaking a 1-1 tie. It was Ramirez's 29th homer. The Tigers' offense picked a bad week to stop hitting. They mustered two runs against the three Guardians' starting pitchers. It was right-hander Tanner Bibee's turn Thursday. He had one spot of bother through six mostly breezy innings. Colt Keith ripped an RBI double in the second inning and the Tigers still had runners at second and third with no outs. But that's all the damage Bibee would abide. Wenceel Perez was thrown out at the plate, running on contact on a grounder by Dillon Dingler. Zach McKinstry struck out and Parker Meadows popped out. Bibee allowed just one other hit through the sixth. On Wednesday, the Tigers got one hit total against five different relievers over the final four innings. Same story Thursday. Only it was one hit in three innings and three relievers (Tim Herrin, Kolby Allard and Hunter Gaddis). It was a double whammy for the Tigers. Keith left the game after that inning with what the team initially diagnosed as lower-back stiffness. The Tigers leaned on their ace to stop the bleeding and Tarik Skubal held up his end of the bargain, emphatically. He powered through six innings, the only smudge a solo home run by Jhonkensy Noel in the fourth inning. Skubal put an 0-2 change-up on the outer edge of the plate, but Noel was able reach out and line it over the bullpen in left-center. "When (Noel) came back in September, he knew what his role was going to be and he accepted it," Vogt said. "He said, 'I know I'm going to play against lefties and pinch hit and I'm ready for it.' He's kept himself ready, he's working for it, he's studying left-handed pitchers and he's ready to go. That was a huge hit for us and a huge for him and I just couldn't be more happy for Jhonkensy." It was just the third 0-2 home run hit against Skubal in his career. The Guardians, as they do, created a couple of long innings against him. They slapped a couple of singles in the second and again in the fourth after Noel's homer. Skubal worked his way out of both and followed each with a clean, eight-pitch inning. And he capped off both of those by striking out David Fry — with a 99.7-mph four-seamer in the third, then a 101.5-mph four-seamer in the fifth. Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award and pitching Triple Crown winner, rang up triple digits three times and struck out nine. He's set a new single-season personal best with 237 strikeouts. He left the game tied 1-1. "We came out aggressive but obviously you're facing one of the best pitchers in baseball," Vogt said. "We got traffic the first two innings and didn't really get anything going after that. Then when Noel got him and we forced him to get his pitch count up up there in the fourth, I thought we were going to get him out of there after six but any time you're facing him it's going to be a tough game. I'm just proud of our guys and that goes on Tanner for keeping us in the game." The Tigers' half of that score stayed the same, not the other. Detroit has lost six of its last seven games and 15 of 22, turning an 11 1/2-game cushion into a lead that isn't comfortable. The Tigers finish their home schedule this weekend with three against the Braves and then try it again against the Guardians in Cleveland. The magnitude of both series has spiked massively. Bibee (11-11) gave up one run and four hits while striking out eight over six innings. Herrin and Allard followed with two innings of scoreless relief and Gaddis pitched the ninth for his third save. "(Bibee) was outstanding," Vogt said. "Pitch count up early in his outing but he was able to get through six on a day when we absolutely had to have him get through six with where we are with the bullpen." Melton (3-2) took the loss after allowing two runs on two hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings. Key stat The defending AL Central-champion Guardians are a season-high 10 games over .500, bouncing back from having a losing record on Sept. 4 by winning 12 of 13 games. Up next Guardians LHP Parker Messick (3-0, 1.84) and Twins RHP Pablo Lopez (5-4, 2.64) are to start tonight in Minnesota. Detroit opens its final homestand Friday night with Tigers RHP Charlie Morton (9-10, 5.66) and Atlanta RHP Bryce Elder (7-10, 5.56).