Emmanuel Clase’s almost perfect season has now been marred.
Cleveland’s All-Star closer, who has dominated as one of the best pitchers in the majors for the past six months, gave up a three-run homer to Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter with two outs in the ninth inning on Monday, leading to a surprising 3-0 victory for the Tigers over the Guardians in Game 2 of the ALDS.
This was only the second time in 2024 that Clase pitched for a second inning, proving that even he can be defeated.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt stood by his choice to bring Clase into such a close game. In fact, he said he would make the same decision again.
“Felt like we wanted to get our best pitcher in there in that moment,” Vogt said. “He’s been the best pitcher in baseball all year, and with the game on the line, we wanted to go get ’em. And he’s gone multiple innings a couple of times for us this year.
“So I wanted to come in there and stop the game with Clase.” This time, he wasn’t able to.
The right-hander got two strikes on Carpenter, and catcher Bo Naylor wanted the next pitch to be in the dirt, but Clase missed the mark.
He left the pitch up, and Carpenter hit it out of the park.
“Emmanuel has been so good for us, and everything went right until Carpenter squared up that slider,” Vogt said. “You got the best pitcher in the world on the mound. You’re going to let him face any hitter. Carpenter is a phenomenal hitter.
“He got a mistake slider, and he didn’t miss it. Gotta tip your cap.”
Clase recorded 47 saves this season, setting a new franchise record for a single season, and he also passed Cody Allen for the career club lead. He hasn’t blown a save since May and finished the regular season with a 0.61 ERA, the lowest in team history.
Nothing seemed to bother him, and there was never a time when he wasn’t available for Vogt, who has relied on the three-time All-Star and baseball’s best bullpen since the start of the season.
Clase didn’t make any excuses and simply said that he made a bad pitch.
