CLEVELAND — Well, that got ugly fast.

It’s hard to imagine a worse start for the Detroit Tigers against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday afternoon in Game 1 of the ALDS at progressive Field.

Cleveland stunned the Tigers, its first five batters scoring in the first inning before the Tigers could even record an out, and then cruised to a 7-0 victory.

Basically, this game was a massive swing and miss for the Tigers – quite literally.

The Tigers struck out 13 times and stranded five on base.

Tigers opener Tyler Holton faced the first four hitters without recording an out. Only 10 other pitchers have failed to record an out in a postseason start, most recently Mike Clevinger in the 2022 NLCS.

The Tigers will be off Sunday and then play the Guardians in a Game 2 on Monday (4:08 p.m., TBS) that will pit former Tigers left-handed pitcher Matthew Boyd for the Guardians against Tigers current lefty ace Tarik Skubal.

Boyd was Skubal’s mentor during 2021 and 2023 when they were Tigers teammates.

Game 3, the Tigers' first playoff home game in a decade, is Wednesday afternoon (find tickets here).

Here's what stood out in Game 1:

INSIDE GAME 1: Missed strike cost Tigers in Game 1. But they beat themselves on their own, too

A horrible start

The Tigers came into this game with a specific strategy:

Try to jump out to the early lead before the Guardians had a chance to go to their strong bullpen.

Try to limit the damage of José Ramírez, who has crushed the Tigers this season, hitting .347 (17-for-49) with five homers, 12 RBIs and a 1.163 OPS.

Continue to play strong defense.

And be careful against Josh Naylor. He hit .300 (12-for-40) against the Tigers, with three homers and nine RBIs.

But overall, the key was to get off to a good start. “There's no doubt this is a high-end bullpen,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before the game. “You want to stay away from them having the lead and then having a way to get to the end of the game.”

That didn’t work out so well for the Tigers.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine a worse start for the Tigers.

The first thing to falter? Their bats.

Tigers had a chance to jump out on top in the first inning with a runner on second with Riley Greene at the plate. Bibee hit Greene, and Colt Keith came up.

Keith got a pitch to hit and slapped it into left field on a line — but right at the fielder.

Then, it went from bad to horrible.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Guardians put two guys on, no outs, and Ramírez came to the plate, facing Holton.

Holton got what he wanted — a ground ball to third base.

But Zach McKinstry couldn’t handle it — it was ruled an error — and the ball went down the left field line and a run scored. The irony? McKinstry was in there, at that spot, because of his defense.

CITY RIVALRY: Detroit and Cleveland should hate each other. Maybe this MLB playoff series will help.

Here came Naylor, batting against a drawn-in infield, and he slapped a ball through the right side, and the Guardians had an early 2-0.

Before a single out.

So, Hinch made a quick pivot, trying to limit the damage, and he went to Plan B: Reese Olson.

But that didn’t work out, either.

On the first pitch, Lane Thomas crushed a hanging slider to left, and before the Tigers could record one out, the Guardians had a 5-0 lead.

Double (play) trouble

The Tigers had plenty of chances.

But some felt bigger than others.

In the fourth, Spencer Torkelson came up with runners on first and second and no outs. And he promptly hit into a double play.

In the top of the fifth, Kerry Carpenter batted with a man on first with two outs. Cleveland went to reliever Cade Smith, and he promptly struck out Carpenter on three pitches.

Postseason pitching debuts

After that one bad pitch to Thomas, Olson settled down. He pitched long enough to keep the Tigers in the game, relatively speaking. And he stayed in long enough to save some of the Tigers’ bullpen.

Every inning at this point of year matters, even with a day off Sunday.

While this was the Tigers' third postseason game, it still marked the debut for Ty Madden, a rookie.

He pitched in the sixth inning and got into trouble quickly. The Guardians drew two walks and with two outs, David Fry doubled down the line in left, turning it into a 7-0 rout.

It also marked the postseason debut for Keider Montero, who was not on the roster against Houston. But Montero was solid, striking out three in two innings.

READ MORE: Tigers set playoff roster vs. Guardians: Casey Mize left off squad

Guardians' dominant bullpen delivers

Bibee opened the game for Cleveland, going 4⅔ innings and striking out six.

But then, the Guardians turned to their No. 1-ranked bullpen.

Cade Smith went 1⅓ scoreless innings, striking out every batter.

Tim Herrin, a lefty, went one inning, striking out two.

Hunter Gaddis went a scoreless inning.

And three-time All-Star Emmanuel Clase (0.61 ERA, 47 saves this season) ended the game.

“I have to have an expectation that we're going to see a lot of Clase, a lot of Gaddis, a lot of Herrin, a lot of Smith,” Hinch said before the game.

And that’s what they got.

In non-stressful situations.

REQUIRED READING: Tigers epic run no flash in the pan: The organization is set for long-term success

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers never had a chance vs Guardians in 7-0 beatdown in ALDS Game 1