CLEVELAND — It was the ninth inning, and Tarik Skubal had just emerged from the weight room when he heard the roar coming from the Detroit Tigers’ dugout.

He stepped into the training room at Progressive Field and shot his eyes toward the television on tape delay.

“We’re gonna like what just happened,” he announced.

Then Skubal saw the two-out, 1-2 pitch from Emmanuel Clase to Parker Meadows. A cutter spiked in the dirt.

“I was like, ‘That wasn’t that good,” Skubal said.

What he didn’t initially realize was that the ball trickled away from Guardians catcher Bo Naylor. Although the ball barely left the dirt surrounding home plate, Naylor struggled to locate the ball and retrieve it.

On third base, Zach McKinstry had been waiting for a two-strike pitch just like this one.

“It came,” McKinstry said, “so I was ready for it.”

McKinstry had entered the game as a pinch-runner for Spencer Torkelson, who reached against Clase via hit by pitch. Torkelson remained in the game as Wenceel Pérez flew out to left field.

From the dugout, manager A.J. Hinch and his coaches watched Clase’s high leg kick from the stretch. Before the next batter, McKinstry — who has stolen successfully in 26 of his past 29 attempts over two seasons — jogged out to first. The substitution meant McKinstry would play first base in the event of extra innings. The super-utility player had never before played first in a major-league game.

“I told Tork when he came off the field to keep his glove close because I think Z-Mack was gonna need to use it,” Hinch said. “I don’t think he’s ever put a first base glove on.”

McKinstry saw a high leg kick, broke and stole second. He was initially called out, but the play was overturned on review. He advanced to third on a Dillon Dingler groundout.

That leads us back to the play that changed the game.

On the wild pitch to Meadows, McKinstry broke toward the plate without hesitation. Clase ran toward home in vain. McKinstry sprinted and scored standing up.

Inside, Skubal’s face lit up.

“I was like, ‘Actually, that’s really good,’” Skubal said.

That’s how the Tigers tied Sunday’s game at 1-1. And in this charmed season, that was only a small part of how Detroit overcame being one-hit for nine innings to finish Sunday with a 7-2 victory.

“I always thought we were gonna win by 5,” Skubal joked after the game.

The Tigers’ victory was just as improbable as it was remarkable. They escaped a shaky relief performance from Bailey Horn in the eighth. And with their bullpen depleted, sidearmer Chase Lee held the Guardians scoreless in the ninth to force extras.

There the Guardians brought in hard-throwing right-hander Cade Smith, who had allowed only one run in seven previous regular-season appearances against the Tigers. Last year in the postseason, Smith appeared in all five games of the ALDS. He surrendered only one run and struck out 12 Detroit batters in 6 1/3 innings.

But Sunday in what had been a teeth-grinding pitchers’ duel, Smith yielded a single to Javier Báez. Meadows was on base as the automatic runner in extra innings. At the plate, Trey Sweeney — the infielder who was optioned last week and brought back only four days ago after Kerry Carpenter went on the injured list — came to the plate.

Sweeney had been slumbering with the bat in general.

He had faced Smith only one previous time and struck out.

“He’s kind of blown it past me,” Sweeney said.

To that point, Sweeney had never hit a home run against a fastball in 356 MLB plate appearances, and Smith boasts one of the best fastballs in the league.

On a 1-0 pitch, however, Smith threw a 97.8 mph four-seamer high and over the outer third of the plate. Sweeney unleashed a tight swing and sent the ball screaming over left field until it finally collided with the foul pole. The ball bounced over concrete toward the left-field gate. Sweeney’s three-run home run was one of those baseball moments that makes the sport so wondrous and unpredictable.

“He’s very steady,” Hinch said. “I think that allowed him to ride this rollercoaster of emotion, whether it’s getting up, going to Triple A for 48 hours, coming up, not playing. He is a baseball player. He will compete and obviously can deliver at the right time against the right pitcher.”

Sweeney’s swing also opened the floodgates.

The hits kept coming, and later in the 10th, Riley Greene — the All-Star outfielder who was somehow mired in an 0-for-22 drought against the Guardians this season — connected for another opposite-field shot.

“For a second there, I thought it was never gonna happen,” Skubal joked of Greene ending his drought.

By the time it was all over, the Tigers walked away with a victory that would look easy to anyone who only glimpsed at the final score.

Of course, none of the absurdity would have been possible if not for another dominant performance from the Tigers’ wizard of an ace. Skubal on Sunday went seven scoreless innings and struck out 10 hitters. He surrendered only three hits and lowered his season ERA to 2.02.

After the game, Skubal was officially named an All-Star for the second consecutive season. He will join Greene, Báez and Gleyber Torres in representing the Tigers in Atlanta.

“To be honest, I’m a little disappointed with only the four guys we got,” Skubal said. “I think there’s a lot more deserving guys on our team. We got the best record in the American League. I would like to think we’d be more represented there.”

Skubal will have competition for the honor of starting the All-Star Game, most notably in Yankees left-hander Max Fried, whose manager, Aaron Boone, is also the manager of the American League team.

“It’d be an honor to start the All-Star Game,” Skubal said. “It’s something that I want to do at least one time in my career. But I don’t make those decisions. It’s not gonna offend me or anything like that.”

If there were any doubt about Skubal’s case to start the Midsummer Classic, Sunday’s dominance was yet another reminder of how he can captivate like no other pitcher in the league.

And if there were any uncertainty about the dazzling nature of this Tigers season, look no further than Sunday’s win.

(Top photo: Jason Miller/Getty Images)