MLB playoffs: Guardians force a Game 5 vs. Tigers after David Fry flips the script with two-run home run in ALDS Game 4

DETROIT — As the saying goes, “Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports.” It’s a sentiment that stands firmly on its own, no qualifiers required. Context is key, though, as not every at-bat is created equal. Regardless of the players involved, a critical truth sustains: For as difficult as it already is to strike a round ball with a round bat, it gets exponentially more challenging when the count is not in the hitter’s favor.

And in Game 4 of the ALDS, the count was not in David Fry’s favor.

A back-and-forth affair that ended with a 5-4 Cleveland victory brought Fry into the spotlight in an elimination game for his Guardians. Although he hadn’t started the game, he was called on to pinch hit for rookie Kyle Manzardo with a runner on base and two outs in the seventh inning, down by a run. Tigers manager AJ Hinch countered with a managerial move of his own, bringing in trusted fireman Beau Brieske.

Facing Brieske was a tall task the moment the bullpen door opened. Across four brilliant appearances, the righty had yet to allow a hit this postseason. Fry was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts against Brieske this year.

A 95 mph fastball breezed by for strike one. Fry fouled off a gnarly changeup for strike two.

Suddenly in an 0-2 hole, the hardest thing to do in sports got even harder.

It is not an accident that a ballpark crowd often rises to its feet when the home team’s pitcher has reached two strikes, as the likelihood of the at-bat ending in the pitcher’s favor increases dramatically. This time was no different. Comerica Park rose together, eager for Brieske to extinguish yet another Guardians rally, ready to roar in unison as it had on numerous occasions amidst postseason baseball’s return to the Motor City after a decade of quiet Octobers.

But this season, in which he has ascended out of anonymity to become one of the most popular and productive players on the Guardians’ roster, Fry has defied the odds over and over. One pertinent example: Despite the overwhelming statistical evidence that success at the plate after stumbling into the ultimate pitcher’s count is a tremendous rarity, Fry has thrived in such situations. MLB teams combined to hit .163/.197/.252 after falling down 0-2 in the regular season. Fry, meanwhile, hit .265/.307/.530 in such situations, good for an .837 OPS that was the best mark in baseball.

And so, undaunted, Fry began to dig himself out of the 0-2 hole as he had many times before. He fouled off another fastball before watching Brieske sail two pitches outside to even the count. Then Brieske brought the heat again, this time in the zone. Fry jumped all over it, launching a towering drive that eventually landed just beyond the left-field wall for a go-ahead, two-run homer.

Volume that had been escalating in every section of a park packed with 44,923 spectators — a Comerica postseason record — suddenly ceased. As Fry rounded the bases, the only sounds were those emanating from the elated Guardians dugout and the few rows behind home plate filled with Cleveland players’ families and friends.

“As a ball player, you know, obviously, this is his coming out party as a player — making the All-Star Game, finishing the season with an .800 OPS, and then going out and doing what he what he’s done so far,” catcher Austin Hedges said postgame. “It’s not surprising to us, but he means the world to us. And you know, a big reason why we’re here right now is because of David Fry.”

Fry’s heroics Thursday weren’t limited to his go-ahead home run, either. In the top of the ninth, he again arrived at the plate with runners on base, this time on the corners with one out. With a one-run lead in hand, Vogt believed that Cleveland’s best chance of adding on against reliever Will Vest was not to have Fry swing for another long ball but, rather, something subtler.

On the first pitch from Vest, Fry pushed a perfect bunt to the right side, allowing Brayan Rocchio just enough time to bolt home from third base and slide in safely. That proved to be a pivotal insurance run when Detroit managed to score against all-world closer Emmanuel Clase in the bottom of the ninth.

“All of our guys work on bunting. It’s a tool that we need to use to tack on that extra run to add on to the lead,” Vogt said afterward. “And for David, when I talked to him, I said, ‘Hey, do you want to do this?’ He said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve bunted a lot in my life. I’m confident.’”

Fry confirmed. “Vogt kind of came up to me and was like, ‘Hey, how confident are you in getting the bunt down?’ And I told him I wasn’t a very good hitter in high school, so I’m pretty confident.”

Fry’s two late plate appearances — a blast and a bunt — were just a couple of the breathtaking plot twists that unfolded over the course of Game 4. Cleveland snapped its 20-inning scoreless streak with a trio of hits and a quick run in the top of the first, but Detroit tied things up in the next frame. Jose Ramirez’s titanic solo homer to left in the top of the fifth was immediately negated by a solo home run from Tigers utilityman Zach McKinstry leading off the bottom of the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Detroit mustered multiple baserunners against Cleveland’s cyborg rookie relief ace, Cade Smith, including one that came around to score on a Wenceel Perez bloop single, seizing Detroit’s first lead of the night and putting the Tigers nine outs away from the ALCS.

They would record only two more before Fry flipped the script.

Any team that survives a win-or-go-home affair is going to feel pretty good after the final out is recorded. But for the Guardians in particular, such a feeling has been elusive. Elimination games have not gone well for this franchise recently. Before Thursday’s triumph, Cleveland had dropped 11 consecutive postseason elimination games, the longest such streak in MLB history. Not since Game 6 of the 1997 World Series had Cleveland managed to stave off elimination in October, and that series 27 years ago still ended in heartbreak, with a Game 7 loss to the Marlins.

It’s a stretch that maybe doesn’t mean anything, considering the constantly changing characters involved; every season, every team, every opponent is different. But it speaks to the repetitive experience Cleveland fans have had to deal with and be reminded of every time their team has found its season on the brink.

The road ahead is still treacherous — Tarik Skubal looms in Game 5, after all — but the dream of ending a 76-year World Series drought remains alive. It will take nine more wins, starting Saturday.