October keeps asking the Detroit Tigers the same question: can your bats match your arms when the game tightens? And the opponent that keeps asking it, loudly, is Cleveland. Context matters here, the Guardians are also built to smother. In 2025, their rotation finished fourth in ERA (3.70) and their bullpen ranked third (3.44), the kind of run prevention profile that turns playoff nights into six-inning sprints where any mistake is magnified.
However, this has left a bruise that won’t fade: across their last four postseason games, each against Cleveland, the Tigers are 4-for-43 with runners in scoring position, and every one of those hits was a single.