The Detroit Tigers need to come back with momentum after a long-overdue blow in the ALDS

“At some point,” he said, “someone is going to hit you in the mouth.”

Phew! Those spinning Tigers eyeballs were thanks to the first five Cleveland batters on Saturday, all of whom reached base – the last of them, Lane Thomas, cracking a hanging slider nearly 400 feet into the left field seats for a three-run home run and one Leading 5-0.

If this were a movie scene, they would have shouted “Stop!” If Howard Cosell had called it, it would have been “Down goes Detroit!” If you trail by five runs before recording an out, you can somehow tell it's not your day.

“We never recovered from it,” Hinch would say.

Now it's true, because for a game that's often accused of taking too long to be over within the first few minutes, that's kind of ironic. But this was more than just a big early lead in a baseball playoff. The Tigers faced a division winner who was just waiting to show his skills to the roaring hometown fans after a six-day break. And had his best pitcher, Tanner Bibee, on the mound. Cleveland is a team that wins by holding the runs together, pushing the starters to the sixth inning and then saying goodnight by taking over the best bullpen in baseball.