DETROIT — Manager AJ Hinch was asked the other day if he believed in the notion that one team can simply have another team’s number.
“No,” was his answer. It may have been the first one-word answer he’s ever given, but the look on his face made it clear no further explanation was coming, nor needed.
Maybe he just hasn’t been here long enough. Because Cleveland, since 2015, has absolutely had the Tigers’ number.
It wrapped up another season series romp, putting an 11-0 hurt on the Tigers on Sunday. Not only did Cleveland ruin right-hander Drew Hutchison’s return to the big leagues after three years, it almost made its own history.
Cleveland has won every season series since 2015. Since 2016, it is 77-27. It’s been so one sided, Cleveland's press notes refer to the Tigers as the Kitties. Why wouldn’t they?
It’s been a big brother-little brother relationship for six years.
Fortunately, the Tigers will never have to play the "Indians" again. The next time they play a baseball team from Cleveland, it will be called the Guardians.
So they have that going for them. Which is about all they had going for them Sunday.
Cleveland skinny right-hander Triston McKenzie, who came into the game with an ERA just south of 6.0, shredded the Tigers for 7 2/3 perfect innings, striking out 11.
But with two outs in the eighth, Harold Castro lined a single to right field to end his bid for baseball immortality.
Using a four-seam fastball (92-mph average), curveball and slider, he had Tigers' hitters off balance all day. Before Castro's single, the only things close to a hit were an opposite-field liner that landed just foul down the left field line and a liner by Jeimer Candelario in the eighth that landed inches foul.
McKenzie got 21 swings and misses and 15 called strikes. He punched out Miguel Cabrera twice in three at-bats, not letting him threaten his 500th home run.
The remaining portion of the Comerica Park crowd, announced at 25,684, gave McKenzie a richly-deserved standing ovation.
The game itself had long been decided.
Hutchison, the Blue Jays' opening day starter in 2015 who has been on a nine-team journey since 2016, earned a return to the big leagues with a strong season at Triple-A Toledo. That after spending 2020 in independent ball.
“From opening day starter to independent ball, like, we could stop right there and it tells you a lot about the person and his perseverance,” Hinch said before the game.
But baseball doesn’t care about your journey. Hutchison’s return went off the rails and crashed in the second inning, thrown off course by a debatable decision by veteran second baseman Jonathan Schoop.
The Indians had runners at the corners with no outs. Hutchison got Owen Miller to hit a one-hopper right at Schoop, who was positioned just a couple feet from second base. It would have been a fairly routine double-play, but he threw the ball to home plate.
The throw beat the runner, Myles Straw, by several feet but catcher Grayson Greiner dropped the throw.
Instead of having two outs, a run in and the bases empty, Cleveland had a run in, no outs and two on.
Cleveland ended up scoring six runs, capped by a two-run homer by Jose Ramirez.
The third inning was just as bad, with lefty Ian Krol taking the brunt of it. A misplay at first base by Renato Nunez (scored a hit) and an error by Schoop opened the flood gates for five more runs. A two-run triple by Amed Rosario and an RBI double by Ramirez were the big blows.
The carnage in the second and third innings looked like this: 11 runs, six earned run, nine hits, five extra-base hits, two errors and three walks.
No coming back from that.
