DETROIT — Pinch hitter David Fry hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning, then bunted home an insurance run in the ninth to help the Cleveland Guardians force a decisive Game 5 against the Detroit Tigers in their American League Division Series with a 5-4 victory on Thursday night.

“David Fry is one of the best baseball players in this league,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.

Cleveland ended a streak of 11 losses in postseason elimination games dating to Game 6 of 1997 World Series after Emmanuel Clase got five outs for his third multi-inning save of the year.

“It’s win or go home,” Vogt said. “You want your best pitchers out there as long as possible.”

AL Cy Young Award favorite Tarik Skubal will start Game 5 for the Tigers on Saturday afternoon in Cleveland.

“It’s always comforting to have Tarik Skubal on the mound,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said.

The winner advances to the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees or Kansas City Royals starting Monday.

“We’re still one win away,” Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkelson said. “That’s the mindset. We don’t want it easy. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Fry said the Guardians’ resilience was no surprise.

“We’ve shown that all year long, that’s who these guys are,” he said. “We have a bunch of tough dudes. We get down 2-1 and we’re in the locker room like it’s just another day. We show up ready to play to try and get a win. And let’s go win Game 5.”

On the verge of reaching the ALCS for the first time since 2013, the Tigers overcame a 2-1 deficit when Zach McKinstry homered in the fifth and Wenceel Pérez hit a run-scoring single in the sixth.

Steven Kwan singled off Sean Guenther with two outs in the seventh.

Beau Brieske had pitched scoreless ball for 5⅓ innings over four postseason appearances before Fry, batting for Kyle Manzardo, drove a fastball off an advertising sign between the two bullpens in left for the second pinch-homer in Cleveland postseason history after Hank Majeski in Game 4 of the 1954 World Series.

That quieted the 44,923 fans who set a playoff attendance record for the second straight day at 25-year-old Comerica Park.

“Such a great baseball game,” Vogt said.

Clase preserved a 4-3 lead in the eighth when he escaped a second-and-third jam by striking out Trey Sweeney on a 100.9 mph cutter as the batter’s helmet came off.

Brayan Rocchio and Kwan hit one-out singles in the ninth and Fry bunted back to reliever Will Vest. Rocchio slid home headfirst to beat Vest’s backhand flip, boosting the lead to 5-3.

That proved to be important.

Pinch hitter Justyn-Henry Malloy doubled leading off the bottom of the ninth, advanced on Parker Meadows‘ groundout and scored on Jace Jung‘s groundout.

Clase, who gave up Kerry Carpenter‘s three-run homer in the ninth inning of the 3-0 loss in Game 2, struck out Matt Vierling, who couldn’t check his swing on a low and outside cutter.

“I was really excited to get to the mound, especially getting the trust back from the manager to get me in that role and that responsibility,” Clase said through an interpreter.

Lane Thomas ended the Guardians’ 20-inning scoreless streak with a two-out RBI single in the first off Reese Olson, who did not allow a run in the first inning of 22 regular-season starts

Sweeney hit a sacrifice fly in the second and Jose Ramirez put Cleveland ahead with a fifth-inning homere off Tyler Holton, ending an 0-for-10 skid.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Carpenter injured his left hamstring when he scored in the sixth and was pinch hit for in the seventh.

“It’s concerning, but I’m going to hold off any thoughts until the doctors give me an update and he gets imaging and all the things that we need to do prior to Saturday,” Hinch said.

UP NEXT

Left-hander Matthew Boyd may start Game 5 for the Guardians, whose last Game 5 was a loss to the Yankees in the 2022 ALCS. Vogt said the team will make that decision Friday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Following an “unprecedented” meeting between the SEC and Big Ten on Thursday, the commissioners of both conferences addressed multiple weighty issues facing college athletics and strongly pushed back on recent pitches from private equity groups to help offset increased expenses that will result from the NCAA’s expected House settlement.

It was an important united front from two of the most powerful people in college sports, as any drastic changes that would include private equity are unlikely to garner national support without the backing of the SEC and Big Ten.

“I have yet to see a single thing in any plan that I’ve learned details about that contains things that we couldn’t do ourselves and our A4 colleagues as well,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said. “At the end of the day, there’s a strong commitment that you have the ability to do all of this ourselves.

“… The notion that college football is broken — what we do is broken — is just not right.”

In February, the SEC and Big Ten announced the formation of a joint advisory group, and this one-day meeting at the Grand Hyatt was a continuation of that — albeit with legal counsel present to make sure both conferences weren’t crossing any lines that could be construed as collusion.

“Our legal counsel is very skilled at this point in defining the boundaries of what we can talk about and what we cannot talk about,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said.

With the SEC now at 16 teams and the Big Ten at 18 following expansion, they are now the largest, wealthiest conferences in the country. And Sankey and Petitti have the bulk of control over the future format of the College Football Playoff in 2026 and beyond.

Yet even with the optics of Thursday’s meeting — and the written guarantee of separation in both power and wealth in the newest CFP contract — Sankey said the perception that the SEC and Big Ten are pulling away from everyone else in college athletics with this partnership is inaccurate. He said he realized there was “plenty of commentary about the two of us meeting,” but he reiterated both leagues “accept the responsibility of leadership.”

“We talk regularly with our other two colleagues in the autonomy groups,” he said, referencing Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips. “Do we bring everybody together? It was hard enough to schedule two conferences of athletics directors. I can’t imagine trying to schedule four.

“We’ll share from this with our colleagues. This is the start of a conversation for us. I don’t think that perception is consistent with our conversation today, where we recognize we’re part of a bigger ecosystem, but we’re also interested in what we might be able to achieve together.”

With all 34 athletic directors from the supersized conferences gathered in a meeting room, the conversation focused largely on the looming House settlement, which recently received preliminary approval, but there was also interest from both leagues in finding a way to schedule more football games against each other.

“Is there a way for us to be intentional about our scheduling?” said Sankey, who was in Ann Arbor last month to see Texas at Michigan. “Just an incredible experience, and you stand on the sideline prior to kickoff thinking, what if we can do this more with our nonconference games? We respect where we have in-state rivalries that take place in nonconference scheduling, but we had a real general conversation about the what-ifs in football and basketball.”

Petitti said part of the discussion is about those games being scheduled organically on campus through athletic directors having conversations.

“The question is there a structure where the two league offices work together to create more of those matchups?” Petitti said. “We had a pretty big discussion about the path to play each other more — see if you can figure out how you can actually do it; decide what games you want, how many — but that’s a broad discussion.”

Sankey said some athletic directors in the room pointed out some games being played this year were scheduled a decade ago, “almost a point of encouragement to say, ‘let’s not wait that long.'”

Leaders in both leagues also discussed the pending roster limits and future of NCAA governance, with Sankey saying “it has to change.” At a recent Division I Council meeting, Sankey said he told the room that “the Division I Council doesn’t work, given what’s changing around us.”

“The board of directors at the Division I level has to change, and it has to change rapidly,” Sankey said. “That’s the view of my conference membership, our presidents and chancellors. I shared that perspective, but I don’t think we’re alone. I don’t think it’s just two conferences that share that.”

Sankey and Petitti agreed they both want to see the 12-team CFP field unfold before they make any determinations about what could change when the next contract begins in 2026.

“This just has to go incredibly well,” Sankey said. “This has to be a successful launch. This isn’t the time to talk about governance in ’26 or the format in ’26, but immediate implementation is in front of us.”

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said the meetings were productive, with “considerable time” focused on the implementation of the House settlement.

“It was an opportunity to learn from each other and have important conversations,” Castiglione said. “It was good to get in a room and compare notes with other athletics directors who face common challenges.”

Oklahoma leading wide receiver Deion Burks is out against No. 1 Texas, according to the Sooners’ SEC player availability report.

Burks has a soft tissue injury, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Thursday.

Burks had been listed as questionable in the availability report ahead of Saturday’s Red River Rivalry game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). He suffered the injury during the Sooners’ loss to Tennessee on Sept. 21 and sat out their victory against Auburn the following week.

Burks, a transfer from Purdue, has produced a team-high 26 catches for 201 yards in four games. He scored all three of his touchdowns in the Sooners’ rout of Temple in the season opener.

Oklahoma will once again be missing five of its top wide receivers when it takes on its rival Saturday. Injured receivers Jalil Farooq, Nic Anderson, Andrel Anthony and Jayden Gibson had already been ruled out for the game.

In their absence, J.J. Hester has emerged as the top receiver for true freshman starting quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr., catching three passes for 86 yards in the road comeback win at Auburn. Jaquaize Pettaway replaced Burks at slot receiver for that game, and Brenen Thompson and Zion Ragins earned starts.

Hawkins, who graduated up the road from the Cotton Bowl at Frisco Emerson, will be the Sooners’ first true freshman quarterback to start against the Longhorns in the 120th edition of the rivalry. He got his first start two weeks ago against Auburn.

The Sooners have also moved cornerback Jacobe Johnson to receiver for added depth.

Oklahoma running back Taylor Tatum was not included in the availability report and is expected to play against the Longhorns after missing the Auburn game. Defensive backs Kendel Dolby and Gentry Williams have been ruled out for Saturday’s game, as has backup tight end Kade McIntyre.

Texas and Oklahoma are both coming off open dates, marking the first time since they started playing annually in 1929 that both were off the previous week.

This is the 44th time both teams will be ranked heading into the game, which is second only to the Ohio State–Michigan rivalry (49). It’s the fifth time Texas will enter the game at the Cotton Bowl ranked No. 1; Texas is 3-0-1 in the previous four.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.