CLEVELAND — It was there for the taking.

Chance after chance after chance and the Tigers continually failed to cash in.

The door left open, the Cleveland Guardians charged through, scoring five times in the bottom of the eighth, squaring the wild-card series 1-1 with a 6-1 win Wednesday at Progressive Field.

The series will be decided Thursday.

With one out, No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio slugged an 0-2 fastball from rookie Troy Melton, 99.9 mph, launching it into the seats in right field.

It was just the third Guardians hit at that point, but it broke the seal. Steven Kwan and Daniel Schneemann followed with back-to-back doubles to chase Melton.

With two outs, Bo Naylor capped the inning with a three-run homer to right off lefty Brant Hurter.

A critical moment in the game came in the top of the seventh inning. Against Guardians righty reliever Hunter Gaddis, the Tigers had runners at the corners and no outs.

They were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position going into that inning, which might explain why manager AJ Hinch opted to send Jahmai Jones up to pinch hit for Riley Greene.

Spencer Torkelson had popped out to shallow left against Gaddis. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt went to lefty reliever Tim Herrin for Greene.

Hinch has talked about pinch hitting for Greene all season. This is the first time he did it. Greene doubled and scored the Tigers’ lone run in the fourth.

Herrin threw six straight curveballs. Jones worked the count to 3-1. He took a borderline pitch that was called strike two and then chased strike three out of the zone.

Herrin ended the threat and kept the game tied striking out Wenceel Perez.

Tigers were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position, leaving 15 on base.

The Tigers had a couple of chances to get on top of the Guardians in the first half of the game, too.

They put the first two runners on to start the game against right-hander Tanner Bibee. Parker Meadows reached on an infield single and Gleyber Torres’ fly ball to center danced in the wind enough for center fielder Chase DeLauter, making his big league debut in a playoff game, to mishandle it.

But Bibee didn’t buckle. He struck out the heart of the Tigers’ batting order — Kerry Carpenter, Torkelson and Greene. A precursor of what was to come.

The Tigers got to Bibee in the fourth, making him throw 30 pitches. But they came out of it with only one run.

Greene doubled with one out. With two outs, Bibee walked Dillon Dingler and Zach McKinstry. It looked like he was pitching carefully to the lefty McKinstry with right-handed hitting Javier Baez up next.

Baez made him pay for that, ripping a single to center. Greene scored to tie the game at 1-1. Dingler would have scored also, except McKinstry was thrown out at third base on a strong throw by DeLauter.

He was called safe initially but ruled out after video review. The out came before Dingler crossed the plate and the run was nullified.

The Guardians worked Tigers starter Casey Mize for 62 pitches in three-plus innings, but their lone run came on one swing. George Valera slugged a 3-2 fastball 411 feet to right-center in the first inning.

It was the only hit Mize allowed, but he had two walks and a lot of long counts. Manager AJ Hinch started the bullpen chess game at that point.

Lefty Tyler Holton powered through 2 1/3 innings, allowing only a single and getting through the first out in the sixth.

Righty Kyle Finnegan took it from there, collecting five outs and turning the tie game over to Melton in the eighth.

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