'It's been a great day': Ibáñez has career night in Tigers' 11-7 win over Guardians
Chris McCosky
Cleveland — Chipotle. Popeye had his spinach. Andy Ibáñez has his Chipotle.
Whatever it takes. Fueled by his favorite pre-game meal, Ibáñez detonated what had been a moribund Tigers' offense with a pair of home runs, a single, double, walk, four RBI and four runs scored in a rollicking 11-7 win over the Central Division-leading Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday.
"It's been a great day," said Ibáñez, though Tigers' bilingual interpreter Carlos Guillen. "The most important part is we finally won. It felt so long since the last time we won and finally we got it back."
The win snapped a season-long, four-game losing streak, a streak in which the Tigers mustered seven total runs. On the night after getting beat 2-1, they pounded out 15 hits and tied their season-high in runs.
"We needed it," manager AJ Hinch said. "I'm really proud of the group. After we had a big inning, they countered with a big inning and we continued to fight back."
Ibáñez, hitting leadoff against Guardians’ lefty starter Logan Allen, got it started on the third pitch of the game. He obliterated a 2-0, get-me-over, four-seam fastball (88 mph) to start the game, launching it into the bleachers in left field. He came up again in the second inning with two runners on and two outs and took another fastball over the right-field wall, capping a four-run second.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 11, Guardians 7
"Never in my career," he said when asked if he'd ever had a game like this, even back in his youth in Cuba. "Not anywhere that I played. Last year I had two homers in the same game, but I've never done nothing like this."
Riley Greene led off the game Monday with a homer. It was the first time since June 3-4, 2002, that the Tigers led off back-to-back games with home runs. Ramon Santiago hit both of them back in 2002.
Ibáñez singled and scored the seventh run in the fourth inning. He doubled and scored the 10th run in the eighth. Was he thinking about a third homer?
More:'He needs to play:' Tigers option Parker Meadows to Toledo, call up Ryan Vilade
"No, no, no," he said, laughing. "The one I was really looking for was the first one. I had five home runs in spring training and all of a sudden it's May and I hadn't got one yet. I was really looking for that first one. But a third one? No chance."
Ryan Vilade made an early impact, too. Selected from Triple-A Toledo before the game to take Parker Meadows’ roster spot (optioned), he ripped a two-run single in the third inning that tied the game 7-7.
It was his first Major League hit, coming three years after he made his debut with the Rockies. His first big-league at-bat was Sept. 18, 2021.
"Felt good," he said. "Some weight off the shoulders, for sure. And it came at a big spot, which was awesome."
Vilade had another big at-bat in the seventh. Jake Rogers, the designated hitter on this night, hit his second double of the game and went to third on a ground out. With one out, the Guardians summoned lefty reliever Tim Herrin.
Vilade is a right-handed hitter, but his numbers in Toledo had been much better against right-handed pitchers. This time, he spoiled the strategy, slapping an RBI single through the drawn-in infield, giving the Tigers a two-run cushion.
"I'm happy for him," Hinch said. "He has waited for that first hit from the minute he got called up a while back and he hasn't gotten an opportunity. Even coming into this camp, he didn't make the team. But he went down, did his work and he got rewarded for it in a huge spot."
The wait was long. Three organizations in three years. Two full seasons in Triple-A without a sniff of the big leagues.
"It's that period of time where you start questioning," Vilade said. "But you've got to keep going. You've got to keep working and that's what I did. I was just looking for an opportunity. That's why I signed here with the Tigers. I'm glad that opportunity came tonight and I'm glad we won.
"It was a long wait. But I'm just thankful for God's timing. As much as we want to carve out our own path, we've got to trust His."
His mother and grandmother flew up from Dallas and were in the stands for his big night.
"It felt like debuting all over again," Vilade said. "But this was different. I was nervous but, like, confident. I'm older now (25). I was just ready for the opportunity."
Matt Vierling had a pair of singles and knocked in three runs.
The offensive deluge washed away a most forgettable night for Tigers’ starter Kenta Maeda. He didn’t have command of his pitches from the start and lasted just two innings, tagged for seven runs on five hits and three walks.
"Lots of first-pitch balls, lots of misfiring and getting into difficult counts," Hinch said. "And the balls that did come into the center of the zone, they got hit. Just an off night and you could sense it from the beginning, just by his body language, his reactions and his disappointment when he was executing."
Two of those walks came in the first inning and both scored on a two-out double by Will Brennan.
He gave up a two-run single to Jose Ramirez and a long and loud three-run homer to Josh Naylor in a five-run second. Naylor’s blast carried 407 feet deep into the first deck in right field.
But the Tigers' bullpen quickly restored order.
"Our bullpen has been a huge part of the success of the season so far," Hinch said.
Lefty Tyler Holton entered in the third and blanked the Guardians for three innings, preserving the 8-7 lead. He had three strikeouts and two double-play balls.
Ramirez opened the fifth with a double, but Holton got two straight ground balls. The first was to shortstop Javier Baez, who smartly threw to third base to cut down Ramirez. Next hitter, Brennan, bounced into a 4-6-3 double-play.
Alex Faedo followed, setting down six straight hitters through the seventh.
Andrew Chafin put up a zero in the eighth and Alex Lange closed out the ninth. Seven scoreless innings from the bullpen.
'It was a very productive win with a lot of contributors," Hinch said. "It was a fun win and one we needed, obviously, with the way things have been going."
@cmccosky