Zach McKinstry’s broken-bat RBI single with two outs in the top of the 11th inning broke a tie as the Detroit Tigers defeated the host Seattle Mariners 3-2 Saturday night in the opener of their best-of-five American League Division Series.
Kerry Carpenter hit a two-run homer for the Tigers, who are set to send ace Tarik Skubal to the mound in Game 2 on Sunday.
Will Vest (1-0) pitched two innings of scoreless relief for the victory and Keider Montero worked the 11th for the first save of his career.
Julio Rodriguez homered and had a run-scoring single for the Mariners. Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh both went 3-for-5, but the rest of Seattle’s lineup was 0-for-28.
Five Mariners relievers combined for five hitless innings before Carlos Vargas (0-1) walked Spencer Torkelson leading off the 11th. Torkelson took second on a wild pitch, then after Munoz struck out the next two, scored on McKinstry’s first-pitch single up the middle, just out of the reach of diving shortstop J.P. Crawford.
Rodriguez broke a scoreless tie, leading off the fourth with a homer to straightaway center field on a 2-2 fastball from Tigers starter Troy Melton.
Detroit answered in the fifth as Parker Meadows hit a one-out single to right and Carpenter launched a 1-2 sinker from Mariners starter George Kirby over the fence in right an out later. It was Carpenter’s fifth hit in 11 career at-bats against Kirby — all home runs.
The Mariners tied it in the sixth off reliever Rafael Montero. Randy Arozarena drew a leadoff walk and Raleigh singled to right-center, sending Arozarena to third. Rodriguez lined a single to right to make it 2-2. Tyler Holton entered and got Josh Naylor to ground into a double play and Jorge Polanco to line out to right to end the inning.
Kirby allowed two runs on six hits over five innings. The right-hander walked one and struck out eight.
Melton, a rookie making his fifth career start, went four innings and gave up one run on two hits. The righty walked one and fanned four.
