October 12, 2024: Lane Thomas’s grand slam powers Cleveland to Game 5 victory over Detroit

Lane Thomas joined Cleveland’s 2024 starting lineup after the Guardians acquired him from the Washington Nationals a day before the July 30 trade deadline. After a rocky first month offensively, the 29-year-old outfielder began to heat up in September, and had a debut playoff series any player would dream of, with a historic moment in the series finale.

The Guardians won the American League Central Division by 6½ games over the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. They rested while the Tigers defeated the Houston Astros in the AL wild-card Series, setting up an AL Division Series matchup with the Tigers. Detroit and Cleveland were the first and third youngest teams in the major leagues by the end of the season, respectively.1

On October 5 a sold-out Progressive Field hosted Game One of the American League Division Series between Detroit and Cleveland – the first-ever postseason matchup between the two teams. In the first inning, Thomas made an immediate impact with a three-run homer on the first pitch from Detroit’s Reese Olson, who came in to relieve opener Tyler Holton. The blast stretched Cleveland’s lead to 5-0. (The final score was 7-0.)

The Tigers stormed back to win Games Two and Three, taking a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-five series. The Game Two victory came behind seven shutout innings from Tarik Skubal, the eventual 2024 AL Cy Young Award winner, and a ninth-inning three-run homer by Kerry Carpenter. In Game Three, Detroit manager A.J. Hinch’s crafty bullpen management, dubbed “pitching chaos” during the Tigers’ 2024 playoff push,2 helped secure a 3-0 win in front of a raucous Motor City crowd.

Detroit was on the verge of its second straight playoff series win. With Cleveland on the ropes, trailing 3-2 in the seventh inning of Game Four, the outlook for the series favorites was grim.

But the Guardians, whose 92-69 regular-season mark was the AL’s second-best record and earned a first-round bye for the first time since the 2020 playoff expansion, weren’t finished. David Fry delivered a clutch two-run, pinch-hit homer that forced a winner-take-all Game Five back in Cleveland.

“This is what you dream of,” 33-year-old Cleveland starter Matt Boyd told The Athletic ahead of his first career winner-take-all appearance. “This is what you want.”3

The first four innings of Game Five were scoreless, though both teams had early chances. Boyd stranded two Tigers in the first inning by striking out Wenceel Pérez, then stranded a runner on third with one out in the second by inducing a popup from Jake Rogers and striking out Trey Sweeney. Boyd recorded five strikeouts in the first two innings.

Skubal’s only early trouble came in the third, when Brayan Rocchio singled to left, Steven Kwan reached on a dropped fly ball by left fielder Riley Greene, and José Ramírez was intentionally walked to load the bases. But Skubal got Thomas to pop out, ending the threat.

After Cade Smith and Erik Sabrowski combined for two scoreless innings out of the Guardians’ bullpen, Detroit broke through in the fifth. Sweeney drew a leadoff walk against rookie Andrew Walters, and Carpenter smacked a Walters fastball off the wall in right-center, scoring Sweeney from first. Dealing with a hamstring injury, Carpenter had to settle for a single on a hit that likely would’ve been a stand-up double otherwise. With Skubal dealing, the Tigers’ 1-0 lead seemed significant.

Contact hitting and aggressive baserunning – or “Guards Ball,” as Cleveland fans, media, and players called it – became the team’s identity during its 2022 division title run.45 Guards Ball came into play again in the bottom of the fifth.

Andrés Giménez led off with an opposite-field single. Skubal struck out Rocchio, but Kwan followed with another opposite-field single. Fry reached on a dribbler to no-man’s land on the right side of the mound, loading the bases. Skubal, who had thrown 28 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, dating back to the regular season,6 hit Ramírez with a 100-mph fastball on a one-strike count, forcing in Gimenéz and tying the game at 1-1.

That brought up Thomas. TBS broadcaster Brian Anderson recalled Thomas’s Game One homer as the center fielder stepped in: “Lane Thomas loves the first pitch.”7

A moment later, Thomas launched Skubal’s heater into the left-field bleachers for a grand slam. The blast gave Cleveland a 5-1 lead and sent the red-clad crowd of 34,105 into a frenzy. Thomas became just the seventh player in AL/NL history to hit a grand slam in a winner-take-all postseason game.8

Despite the seemingly crushing grand slam, the Tigers kept fighting. They scratched across runs in the sixth and seventh innings on RBI hits from Rogers and Colt Keith respectively.

Clinging to a 5-3 lead in the seventh, Cleveland added insurance. Thomas scored Kwan on an infield single. He finished the series with six hits and a team-leading nine RBIs. Rocchio, who also stood out in his playoff series debut, knocked in Giménez in the eighth with a single to center, extending the lead to 7-3.

Closer Emmanuel Clase, who struggled throughout the 2024 postseason (8 earned runs in 8 innings pitched), delivered his best outing in Game Five, a two-inning save without allowing a baserunner. His two strikeouts gave Cleveland pitchers 16 for the game, tying the major-league record for a winner-take-all contest. Cleveland also had 16 strikeouts in its 2017 ALDS Game Five loss to the New York Yankees while the Colorado Rockies struck out the Chicago Cubs 16 times in their 2018 wild-card-game win.

Clase led the AL in saves for the third straight season and finished third in the league’s Cy Young Award voting, behind Skubal and Seth Lugo of the Kansas City Royals.

Despite being charged with a run in the sixth, Guardians reliever Tim Herrin was credited with the win while Skubal took the loss in the series finale that took 3 hours and 8 minutes. The game ended Detroit’s remarkable underdog story. The Tigers sat at 52-58 on August 1, 8½ games out of a wild-card spot, before winning 34 of their final 52 games.

After the game Thomas reflected on his early struggles after he was traded to Cleveland by the Nationals and his unforgettable Game Five moment. 

“I’m thankful they hung with me and let me get my feet under me and kept giving me at-bats,” Thomas said. “You dream of at-bats like that as a little kid and to do it at this stage, in this game and come through for the guys in the clubhouse, it feels awesome.”8

The Guardians hit several dramatic home runs during the 2024 postseason, but Thomas’s grand slam off Skubal was the highlight of Cleveland’s lone series victory. Detroit’s ace had been dominant all year and hadn’t allowed a run in two prior playoff starts. Cleveland breaking through with a five-run fifth inning in a winner-take-all game cemented the series into the franchise’s storied history.

“You have to believe,” said first-year Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who went on to receive AL Manager of the Year honors. “If you don’t believe in your group, don’t even show up. We knew, as soon as we got back to Cleveland, we had a chance. And, yes, we’re facing the best pitcher in the league but that’s who that group in that room is. They wanted it. They wanted to face (Skubal) today.”9

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Lane Thomas, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author relied on Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. He also reviewed a YouTube video of the game’s television broadcast on MLB.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE202410120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2024/B10120CLE2024.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u-zjV16KB8

Notes

1 Sarah Langs, X.com (@SlangOnSports), October 4, 2024, https://x.com/SlangsOnSports/status/1842306128928977039?lang=en. Accessed June 9, 2025.

2 Jason Beck, “Tigers Turn ‘Pitching Chaos’ into a Recipe for Postseason Success,” MLB.com, October 2, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/tigers-pitching-chaos-wild-card-bullpen-usage.

3 Zack Meisel, “As Guardians Prepare for Game 5, Emotions Are Running High: ‘This Is What You Dream Of,’” The Athletic, October 11, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5837667/2024/10/11/cleveland-guardians-emotions-alds-game-5/

4 Terry Pluto, “What Is Guards Ball? How Do These Guys Keep Winning? – Terry’s Talkin’ Guardians,” Cleveland.com, September 14, 2024, https://www.cleveland.com/guardians/2024/09/what-is-guards-ball-how-do-these-guys-keep-winning-terrys-talkin-guardians.html.

5 “What Is Guards Ball?” YouTube video (Cleveland Guardians), 2:23, accessed May 20, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnBUlnpBY4g.

6 This fact was referenced at 1:12:59 of a video recording of the TBS television broadcast of this game. “Tigers vs Guardians (10-12-2024) ALDS Game 5 Full game,” YouTube video (Baseball Savant), 2:19:13, accessed May 20, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPKaYiFYfS8.

7 This quote is from 1:13:18 of the video recording of the TBS broadcast. Tigers vs Guardians (10-12-2024) ALDS Game 5 Full game.”

8 The others were Bill Skowron of the New York Yankees in Game Seven of the 1956 World Series, Troy O’Leary of the Boston Red Sox in Game Five of the 1999 American League Division Series, Johnny Damon of the Red Sox in Game Seven of the 2004 American League Championship Series, Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants in Game Five of the 2012 National League Division Series, Brandon Crawford of the Giants in the 2014 National League wild-card Game, Howie Kendrick of the Washington Nationals in Game Five of the 2019 National League Division Series. Sarah Langs, X.com (@SlangsOnSports), October 12, 2024, https://x.com/SlangsOnSports/status/1845179187700605394. Accessed June 9, 2025.

8 “Lane Thomas Breaks Down Grand Slam in Guardians ALDS Game 5 Victory Over Tigers,” YouTube video (Cleveland Guardians on SI), 1:11, accessed June 2, 2025, posted October 12, 2024, by Cleveland Guardians on SI, YouTube, (1:11), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IVDOjFR_P8.

9 Paul Hoynes, “Lane Thomas’ Grand Slam Helps Guardians Eliminate Tigers, Advance to ALCS with 7-3 Victory,” Cleveland.com, October 12, 2024, https://www.cleveland.com/guardians/2024/10/guardians-eliminate-tigers-advance-to-alcs-with-7-3-victory.html. The Guardians went on to lose the AL Championship Series to the New York Yankees, four games to one.