MLB playoffs: Lane Thomas' grand slam powers Guardians over Tigers in Game 5, into ALCS vs. Yankees

Lane Thomas’ aggressive approach at the plate paid off again for the Cleveland Guardians in Game 5 of the ALDS on Saturday.

On the first pitch he saw from Detroit Tigers starter Tarik Skubal in the bottom of the fifth inning, Thomas blasted a grand slam to help the Guardians to a 7-3 victory and a place in the ALCS.

"He threw one pitch over the middle, and I put a good swing on it. It's as simple as that," Thomas said afterward. "I don't know how many scoreless innings he threw [in the series]. It just takes one."

Skubal had been cruising along, quieting the Guardians’ bats through four innings, which gave him a total of 17 scoreless innings pitched in this postseason. But in the bottom of the fifth, the AL pitching Triple Crown winner and likely Cy Young recipient got himself into a jam that he couldn’t escape.

Singles from Andrés Giménez, Steven Kwan and David Fry brought José Ramírez to the plate with the bases loaded. Instead of the Guardians’ third baseman doing it with his bat like he has done so many times during the season, Ramírez took one for the team — a hit by pitch on the arm — to tie the game 1-1.

With Skubal in a tough spot, it was a prime opportunity for Thomas to be aggressive. Much like he did with a first-pitch, three-run blast in Game 1, his grand slam struck a blow in the Tigers’ hopes with their ace on the mound.

Thomas, who had 9 RBI in the ALDS, loved swinging away when the count was 0-0 during the regular season. The 29-year-old outfielder, who was acquired from the Washington Nationals on July 29, was 18-for-63 (.286) with a home run and 9 RBI on first pitches this season. So far in October, he has three hits — two of them home runs — in such situations.

"That's who we are. That's who that group has been in that room all year. As soon as we get punched, we answer," manager Stephen Vogt said postgame. "... But we can't rely on the home run. We have to string things together, and our guys did both today. And then we got the add-on runs at the end, and I thought today was just a perfect picture of who our team is at our best — and couldn't have come on a better day."

The Tigers had a chance to respond in the top of the sixth inning following Thomas' blast. They brought in a run on a Jake Rogers single, which made it 5-2, and after a Trey Sweeney walk, the bases were loaded for righty-killer Kerry Carpenter.

Carpenter had started the game on the bench while battling a nagging hamstring injury. He pinch-hit for Justyn-Henry Malloy in the top of the fifth and promptly knocked a 370-foot single to right-center field, scoring Sweeney and giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. 

But in the sixth, Carpenter could not win the bases-loaded battle against Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis.

The Tigers scraped across one more run in the seventh, making in 5-3 before the Guardians added insurance runs in the seventh and eighth. Emmanuel Clase recorded the final six outs, including another massive strikeout of Carpenter in the eighth inning, to seal the victory for Cleveland.

"I have a heartbroken team for all the right reasons," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said afterward. "We left everything we could on the field against a really good team, and we didn't want the season to end as abruptly as it did. ...

"I just told the guys ... Once you play in one October, you never want to miss one the rest of your career, ever. And so we're going to need to do a lot of work to get better and continue to play the brand of baseball that is winning baseball."

With the Game 5 victory, the Guardians advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2016. Game 1 of Guardians vs. Yankees will be Monday at 7:38 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium.

"You have to believe. If you don't believe in your group, don't even show up," Vogt said. "We knew, as soon as we got back to Cleveland, we had a chance."