Jace Jung's clutch moment vs Yankees shifts Tigers' youth movement discussion

Going into the Little League Classic on Sunday night, the Tigers were the clear underdogs. Not only were they a below .400 squad out of playoff contention going up against the Yankees, who are in a three-way tie for the second-best record in baseball, there were also the perhaps more trivial matters of historical cachet and star power. Tigers fans know that Tarik Skubal, Riley Greene, and Colt Keith are three of the best in the game right now, but put up against Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, that tends to fall by the wayside.

The fact that the Tigers had already taken one from the Yankees the night before didn't seem to hold much weight with the Little League crowd or the ESPN broadcast team, who were so on the Yankees' side it wouldn't be surprising if it disheartened the Tigers a little at the time.

However, that didn't stop the Tigers from storming back on Sunday night and taking the series from the Yankees in front of a crowd that was mostly rooting against them. Skubal had only allowed one run through six innings and the Tigers bullpen held things down from there. In the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees were threatening a 1-0 win until the young guns decided they wouldn't go down without a fight.

Colt Keith doubled, and then the newly promoted Jace Jung came up to make things interesting. He roped a single into left field — his first major league RBI — to score Keith and force the game into extras.

Tigers led by Jace Jung, Parker Meadows in Little League Classic walk-off against Yankees

In the 10th, the Yankees took advantage of the ghost runner on second, and DJ LeMahieu promptly made the game 2-1 on an RBI single. It'd be the only run Beau Brieske would allow, though; he got Oswaldo Cabrera to ground into a double play and then Gleyber Torres struck out to end the inning. Bottom of the 10th, Zach McKinstry scored Trey Sweeney as the ghost runner on the second pitch he saw from Mark Leiter Jr.

McKinstry moved to second on a nice steal that was challenged and upheld, and then Parker Meadows came up looking to put this one in the books. He didn't disappoint. In a 1-2 count, he grabbed ahold of a changeup on the corner of the plate and shot it to left field for the Tigers to walk it off.

It was the perfect way to cap off a series win against one of the best teams in baseball, and it shows that this Tigers team, even if they've been written off by not only the attending crowd but the broadcast meant to be a neutral party, is wily, and their young players are more than capable of stepping up and giving Detroit fans a glimmer of hope for the future.

It capped off Jung's first major league weekend neatly and was a nice revenge moment after he struck out looking with two men on and two outs in Friday's close game at Comerica. The Tigers celebrated on the field at Williamsport while a Little League crowd who weren't hiding their disappointment watched. Judge and Soto who?