The challenge in pitching is to remain unknowable – to keep hitters guessing, never to lose time or figure it out. At the end of the Tigers-Guardians American League Divisional Series, which included a significant number of relief innings even by the standards of postseason baseball, there was a sense that these teams, which had already met 13 times in the regular season, were each getting better developed quite familiar with each other. The resulting sights might be unfamiliar to fans: Detroit's Beau Brieske, who hadn't given up a home run with his fastball all season, served a green meatball to David Fry in Game 4; Unbeatable Guardians seamer Emmanuel Clase allowed one fewer earned runs in this series than he had all year. The threat of overexposure made every game feel particularly tense. “It was such a fun series,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said after Game 5 on Saturday, a 7-3 Guardians victory. “Two very balanced teams competed and it was a lot of fun.”

Although Cleveland's path to the postseason wasn't as bizarre as Detroit's – the Guardians took first place in the division in mid-April and never relinquished it despite fears from the Twins and Royals – both teams relied on run prevention were. The Guardians' offense cooled off in the second half, but the team stayed afloat thanks to an elite homegrown bullpen. An injury to star player Shane Bieber early in the season, as well as some underperformance from the young talent, left the Guardians' rotation in about the same (shrug emoji) shape as the Tigers heading into the postseason.

But the Tigers hoped having just one guy in their rotation wouldn't matter as long as it was the right guy: likely AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. He offered Tigers fans a break from what manager AJ Hinch called the team's “pitching chaos.” Skubal had thrown 13 mostly stress-free shutout innings in his first two postseason appearances, Game 1 of the Wild Card Series in Houston and Game 2 of the ALDS. He had pitched another four scoreless innings to start Game 5 and even escaped a one-out jam with runners on second and third in the bottom of the third inning. Still, Vogt said, “everyone who came into our clubhouse today believed we were going to get him.”

Guardians outfielder Lane Thomas told a different story. “Absolutely not,” he said when asked if there was a feeling of confidence throughout the team to face Skubal. In that third inning situation, the result of a fielding error with one and two bases, Skubal got David Fry to chase three pitches and then intentionally walked José Ramirez to load the bases with two outs for Thomas. Thomas threw a 99 mph fastball to end the inning. “I’ve never seen anyone throw so hard and relate to me so well,” he told the team’s hitting coach. But as little as he believed in that moment, the next time he came to bat, with the bases loaded again in a tied game, he robbed a first-pitch sinker for a grand slam to left-center for the Guardians to take the lead 5-3. 1.

“When I first loaded the bases, I looked kind of soft,” Thomas explained afterward. “I thought he wasn't going to attack me in that situation and he proved me wrong and then the next time I thought, you know, I have to be ready for the fastball.” Vogt added that the ALDS was the most nerve-wracking regular season series between the two teams was very similar. “It's like whoever has the big success wins.” Detroit, on the other hand, continued to hunger for their big success. After leading 2-1 in the series, the Tigers went 1-11 and 1-12 with runners in scoring position in the final two games.

Skubal, who was prone to home runs quite often early in his career, had never given up a grand slam. Live by the ace, die by the ace. This was a surprisingly bearable way to lose. “He could have given up 100 points today and I’m still going to put him ahead of everyone else,” his battery colleague Jake Rogers said afterwards.

Thomas, a trade deadline acquisition responsible for another game-winning home run in the first inning of Game 1, was the rare guard the Tigers hadn't seen much; Detroit and Cleveland completed their season series at the deadline. He struggled badly in his first games as a Guardians, making him an unlikely postseason hero. But perhaps the most likely hero of the postseason is an unknown face.