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 on 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.
“I don’t know if it was an exhale or what (beating Cleveland in the AL wild-card round), but this crowd was great and we played free and fearless,” Carpenter said.
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 r