A bunt, a perfect game bid and a tarp: How Diamondbacks-Guardians tensions boiled over

CLEVELAND (AP) — Torey Lovullo has been involved with professional baseball as a player or coach for nearly 40 years. So, when it comes to the unwritten rules of baseball — especially when a pitcher has a perfect game or no-hitter going — the Arizona Diamondbacks manager knows if a line is being crossed.

While some might think Tim Tawa trying to bunt during the sixth inning of Sunday's game while Cleveland's Gavin Williams had a perfect game bid going violated the unwritten codes of the sport, Lovullo said it was a perfectly acceptable decision.

“Not even close for me,” Lovullo said after Cleveland's 5-0 win over Arizona. "I’ve had this discussion with (Cleveland manager) Stephen Vogt before when he was in our dugout as a player. I play it clean and you can do basically anything in between the white lines for six innings. And then after that, you got to be careful. It’s either black or white for me. I don’t like gray stuff.

“Timmy asked if he could bunt. We all checked off on it, said absolutely. And they clearly took exception to that.”

Williams had retired the first 15 Arizona batters he faced, including nine via strikeout.

Tawa took a called strike on the first pitch before fouling back a bunt attempt on the next pitch. After Tawa's bunt hit the screen behind home plate, Cleveland catcher Patrick Bailey and shortstop Brayan Rocchio voiced their displeasure over Tawa's decision.

Tawa then lined the next pitch into right field to give the Diamondbacks’ first baserunner. Rocchio and Tawa exchanged words after Tawa was forced out at second base on a grounder by Ildemaro Vargas. However, Tawa’s hard slide caused Rocchio’s throw to first place for a potential double play go wide.

The chirping between both teams continued though and reached a breaking point with two outs in the sixth, when both benches emptied after crew chief Lance Barksdale called for the grounds crew to put the tarp on due to heavy rain.

Vogt and third-base coach Rouglas Odor charged from the dugout and began exchanging words with Diamondbacks players and coaches. The benches emptied for both teams, but calm was restored a couple minutes later as Vogt and Lovullo talked at home plate.

“I mean, when things happen on the baseball field, tempers can flare sometimes. I was upset just because there were people talking to our players that shouldn’t be,” Vogt said. “When there’s a perfect game going, some people are going to be very upset at that. But again, that wasn’t the crux of my frustration.”

Also adding to the mayhem was the grounds crew trying to get the infield covered.

“I’ve never had a tarp involved in a scrum with another team. It’s a first for me,” Lovullo said. “Through some hard lessons and suspensions and fines, I’ve learned the hard way to deescalate instead of amplify it. And in that case, I felt like that was my job. And I think Vogter and I got together and talked about it. And he saw it the same way I did.”

Williams allowed one hit in 5 2/3 innings with 10 strikeouts and one walk. The right-hander joined Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw as the only pitchers in MLB history with double-digit strikeouts and one walk or fewer in at least five straight games.

As for Tawa's bunt attempt, it was the least of his worries.

“I don’t really have any reaction. It is what it is. I don’t really care. My job is to get out and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Williams said.

Tawa was in an 0-for-21 skid before getting the hit and said he was trying to do anything he could to snap out of it.

“I understand the unwritten rules of baseball and that’s a thing. And at the same time, I’m just trying to get on base and help the team and gain some momentum,” he said.

Both teams were issued warnings about any retaliation after the hour, 34-minute rain delay. Tawa struck out in the seventh and reached on a fielder's choice in the ninth.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Home plate umpire Jonathan Parra (30) holds back Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, center, between catcher Patrick Bailey, left, and pitcher Gavin Williams (32) during an argument in the sixth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Home plate umpire Jonathan Parra (30) holds back Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, center, from Arizona Diamondbacks' Ildemaro Vargas (6) during an argument in the sixth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Home plate umpire Jonathan Parra (30) holds back Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, center, between catcher Patrick Bailey, left, and pitcher Gavin Williams (32) during an argument in the sixth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Arizona Diamondbacks' Tim Tawa fouls off a bunt attempt in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians in Cleveland, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Detroit Tigers said their goodbyes to ace Tarik Skubal and now must turn their focus to an uncertain final two months of the season as they try to make a playoff push without their best player.

The Tigers traded the two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner to the Los Angeles Dodgers for three minor league prospects in a deal that was agreed to late Saturday night.

“Baseball has a funny way of challenging you to deal with change,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before the series finale against the Athletics on Sunday. “Sometimes that’s difficult, sometimes it’s part of the game and part of the business. These guys are callous to some of the emotions that come with it.”

Hinch's team responded with an 11-0 win to complete the series sweep and keep the Tigers within 2 1/2 games of the last wild-card spot.

“We played a really good series in the midst of a lot of different things swirling around us,” Hinch said. “This group’s pretty tough. We go through it game by game and showed a lot of character, obviously.”

Moving on without Skubal will be the ultimate challenge. The ninth-round draft pick in 2018 developed into one of the best pitchers in baseball, winning the Cy Young in 2024 and '25 and posting a 2.40 ERA over the past three seasons.

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings and had a major impact in the clubhouse. But with him set to become a free agent after the season, the Tigers opted to trade him for minor league right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Hinch said it was important for the players to appreciate what Skubal gave the team while still understanding the task ahead.

“He wasn’t going to pitch today. So we have to be sort of cold about we got to move on and go play today’s game that he wasn’t going to impact despite the loss of his presence in our clubhouse,” Hinch said. "We have a ton of respect for what he brought every day, his preparation, his attitude, his desire to win. That impact doesn’t leave with him as he gets on a plane to go to a different team. The day-to-day does, and we’re going to have to find a way to overcome it.”

News of the trade broke during Detroit's 8-6 win over the A's on Saturday night with many players first hearing about it from fans near the dugout during the game. Skubal was back in the clubhouse beyond the center-field fence at the minor league stadium where the A's play when he got the news, making it impossible for the players to get the news directly from him until after the game.

But they managed to focus on the game and come up with the win.

“The team’s handled it really well,” first baseman Spencer Torkelson said. “Leading up to the trade, I thought we blocked out the noise amazing. Even in the sixth inning when everyone’s screaming at us from the stands that we traded our best pitcher, I think we kept our focus and kept the main thing the main thing. I think as a team we still believe in ourselves and we know that we’re definitely not out of it.”

The trade came at an uncertain time for the Tigers, who have overcome a slow start to the season to get close to playoff position.

Prized prospect Max Clark was called up from the minors on Friday and has delivered by reaching base safely nine times in three games. But the team also scratched Casey Mize from his scheduled start this weekend in case he gets traded before the deadline Monday.

“It’s a weird, weird place," Mize said. “We’ve played really good baseball the last couple days. We trade our best player. It says we’re 2 1/2 back, but obviously there’s a lot of teams still to overpass, so it’s certainly a strange spot."

The task now will be to try to get back to the playoffs without Skubal after they lost in Game 5 of the division series the past two seasons. Skubal started both of those losses. He had a rough start and took the loss in 2024 against Cleveland. He had a strong start last season with 13 strikeouts in six innings against Seattle but the bullpen squandered a 2-1 lead and the Tigers went on to lose 3-2 in 15 innings.

Skubal said Saturday night after the trade that it hurt that he couldn't help deliver Detroit its first World Series title since 1984.

“Over the last couple of years, we don’t get anywhere near to what we’ve done without Tarik Skubal,” Mize said. “I hope our fan base is appreciative of that, even if it maybe didn’t end the way that everyone wanted it to.”

The Tigers fans might get a chance to see Skubal again later this month when the Dodgers visit Detroit Aug. 28-30.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, right, takes the ball from pitcher Tarik Skubal during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal reacts to a pitch during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal walks to the dugout during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)