Through four innings Wednesday, the Detroit Tigers’ season appeared to be over.
Instead, they rallied to force Game 5 against the Seattle Mariners with an explosive, 9-3 victory in Game 4 of the ALDS.
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Seattle entered the game with a 2-1 series advantage and took a 3-0 lead through four innings, with a chance to close the series out. A lifeless Detroit home crowd, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found.
Everything changed in the fifth. The Tigers chased Mariners starter Bryce Miller with a Dillon Dingler RBI double to plate their first run. Pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones scored Dingler with an RBI double. And Javy Báez brought the crowd back to life with a single to score Jones and tie the game 3-3.
From there, it was all Tigers, highlighted by a sixth-inning outburst.
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Riley Greene led off the inning with a solo homer for a 4-3 advantage and Detroit’s first lead since Game 1 of the ALDS.
Zach McKinstry added an RBI single. Then Báez blew the game open with a two-run home run to flip Seattle’s closeout aspirations into a Detroit runaway.
The Mariners never recovered.
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The Tigers tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh and eighth, and Detroit’s bullpen shut down Seattle’s offense for the remainder of the game.
By the time the game was done, once-dormant Detroit bats had tagged Seattle’s pitching for 13 hits including three home runs. Gleyber Torres joined Greene and Báez in the home run column with a solo shot in the seventh.
With the win, the Tigers tied the series 2-2 and forced a decisive Game 5 after their season was very much on the brink. The series will shift back to Seattle for Game 5 on Friday (4:40 p.m. ET, FS1). The winner will claim a berth in the ALCS.
