No Detroit Tiger broke out on the national stage this postseason as much as their closer, Will Vest. Tarik Skubal is a known star after his dominant, Cy Young-winning 2024 campaign, Kerry Carpenter’s ascent thanks in part to Aaron Judge’s hitting coach has been well covered, and everyone knew Javy Baez already. Meanwhile, the “pitching chaos” closer flew a bit under the radar despite utterly dominating his opponents.
And I do mean dominating. Vest threw 8 innings, allowed 2 hits, 1 hit by pitch, 0 walks, 9 strikeouts and 0 runs.
Wow.
No pitcher has, so far, thrown this many innings with an ERA of 0.00, and only one – Andres Munoz of the Seattle Mariners – is still playing with a chance to catch him. When AJ Hinch needed a shutdown inning, out came Vest to deliver. Like this, my personal