Questionable Will Vest tag of Jose Ramirez has fans peddling Tigers-Guards conspiracy

The Tigers had a tenuous 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the ninth against the Guardians in Game 1 of the Wild Card series. Will Vest has been outstanding in the ninth (and pretty much only the ninth), but Cleveland's best chance to at least tying the game was coming up to lead off the inning.

José Ramírez is one of the best hitters in baseball and hit .347 with a 1.030 OPS in 13 regular season games against the Tigers this year. He went 0-2 with a walk against Tarik Skubal, but that was Tarik Skubal. Vest, as good as he can be, would've been the guy that Ramírez finally got to.

And he sort of did. He hit a grounder up the middle and it was fielded nicely by Javy Báez, but Spencer Torkelson couldn't pick the throw to first. Ramírez made it all the way to third as the ball trickled into foul territory.

Vest got his first out on a swinging strikeout, then Kyle Manzardo sent a tapper back to the mound. Vest fielded it, and Ramírez was halfway down the third base line as he tried to bust it to home. He faked a throw to third, then tagged Ramírez to spoil Cleveland's best chance to tie. The Tigers ended up wrapping things up one batter later.

That should've been it, but some decided to quibble with the out on Ramírez. Grant Bisbee of The Athletic wrote on Bluesky: "After watching several replays, I'm about 90 percent sure that Will Vest tagged José Ramírez with an empty glove. A true Guards Ball win would have been him noticing and tying the game on a challenge."

Will Vest's 'controversial' tag on Jose Ramirez creates Tigers-Guardians drama

The replays are inconclusive, but 90% feels like a stretch. It looks like Vest transferred the ball to his hand to make the tag, because his hand went back into his glove to retrieve the ball when he turned back toward first to see if he had a play on Manzardo. If the Guardians had challenged, it might've been close depending on the extra angles available to the league, but it can easily be argued that Vest made a legitimate tag.

And besides, the Guardians didn't end up challenging at all. (Brisbee also ended up amending his earlier statement to "23-percent sure and dropping upon further viewings.")

The Tigers won that one fair and square, thanks to a career-best start from Skubal in many respects, and just enough run support not to blow it. He dismissed criticism of the Tigers' late-season slide after the game, saying, "It doesn't really matter how we got here... we're up 1-0 in a best of 3."

If Detroit can wrap this up on Wednesday, no one will be talking about that slide at all anymore.