Guardians erase 3-0 deficit, walk off Tigers in 10 after Rocchio's two steals

Detroit did real work against Foster Griffin, and the box score does not need much help to show it. The Tigers scored twice in the third when Hao-Yu Lee singled home Zach McKinstry and Kevin McGonigle doubled home Gleyber Torres. They added another run in the fifth after Torres singled and Dillon Dingler doubled, leaving Eduardo Valencia to line a single that made it 3-0.

That is a useful lead, but it is also the kind that asks for clean innings later. Detroit finished with nine hits, and Torres sat in the middle of the traffic, recording two singles and a walk while scoring twice. Griffin still got through six innings, but he did it while allowing eight hits and three runs. In other words, the Tigers kept making Cleveland pitch from discomfort; they just never turned that discomfort into the kind of scoreboard damage that closes a game by itself.

There is a difference between taking control and finishing the job. Detroit clearly handled the first part.

Cleveland's comeback became believable in the eighth, when Steven Kwan drew a leadoff walk and Travis Bazzana hit a two-run homer to right-center off Jacob Waguespack to tie the game. The loud swing came there. The quieter work came next.

Hunter Gaddis gave the Guardians two perfect innings across the ninth and tenth. He retired all six hitters he saw and threw 16 strikes in 24 pitches, which is another way of saying Detroit never got a free base and never got the inning to wobble. The ninth was clean: two strikeouts and a groundout. The 10th was cleaner in a more difficult way. Javier Báez entered as a pinch runner for Gleyber Torres, reached third on Kevin McGonigle's groundout, and still stayed there when Eduardo Valencia grounded out to end the inning.

That is the part of the game late relievers are asked to own. Once Cleveland had tied it, Gaddis made sure Detroit did not get to reclaim the lead before the bottom half began.

In the bottom of the 10th, Brayan Rocchio turned a single baserunner into a sequence Detroit never quite reset. He reached on a fielder's choice that erased the lead runner at third, then stole second. Kwan flied out, which should have narrowed the inning. Instead Rocchio stole third with two outs and a 2-2 count on Bazzana.

That matters because third base with two outs changes what kind of contact can end a game. Kenley Jansen had started Bazzana ahead 0-2, but the at-bat stretched, Rocchio kept moving, and the geometry got kinder for Cleveland. Bazzana finally sent a single to center, Rocchio scored, and the Guardians had a 4-3 win.

Rocchio's line will show two stolen bases. The better reading is that he kept taking ninety feet until the inning belonged to somebody else's bat.