A Sense of Doubt blog post #3511 - THE DETROIT TIGERS CLINCH A WILD CARD SPOT!!!
The Tigers did it.
So exciting!!
Tigers end decade-long postseason wait with win over White Sox
DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers, the hottest team in baseball the last several weeks, earned an AL wild-card berth Friday night to end a decade-long postseason drought.
"This team is pretty dangerous," Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said. "We got a chance to make some noise in October, and we're going to keep fighting for the opportunity."
Detroit clinched a spot in the playoffs with a 4-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, who set a modern major league record with their 121st loss.
The Tigers will play at top AL wild card Baltimore or AL West champion Houston in a best-of-three series starting Tuesday. They have been on a tear, winning six straight and 10 of 11 to surge into the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
The Tigers have been on a tear, winning six straight and 10 of 11 to surge into the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Detroit was 55-63 on Aug. 10 -- 10 games out of the last wild card -- and then went 31-11. During that stretch, the Tigers have the lowest ERA in baseball and the largest run differential.
"It's been a dream come true," first baseman Spencer Torkelson said.
With two games left, the Tigers were in position for the second AL wild card, one game ahead of AL Central rival Kansas City, which also clinched a playoff spot Friday while Minnesota was eliminated.
AL Cy Young Award favorite Tarik Skubal leads Detroit's rotation and Jason Foley has become a reliable closer in a strong bullpen. He earned his 28th save in the series opener against Chicago.
Riley Greene, an All-Star outfielder, is the team's top player in a lineup that gets timely hitting from the top to the bottom.
Torkelson, the No. 1 overall pick in 2020, was sent to the minors during the season and bounced back well enough to contribute to the team's late run.
"That's what makes it so special, when you do win," Torkelson said. "It's not always going to be perfect. You're not always going to get a hit. You're not always going to strike the guy out. But just grinding through it and persevering, that's what makes it so, so special."
Taking advantage of playing a historically bad team, Detroit broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning of the playoff-clinching win. Jake Rogers scored when Jared Shuster was charged with a wild pitch even though the ball didn't hit the dirt just below catcher Korey Lee's glove.
Greene put Detroit ahead 3-1 with a double in the seventh, and Chicago helped the home team's cause again later in the inning when Fraser Ellard threw the team's third wild pitch of the night.
Detroit overcame long odds to reach the postseason. A month ago, the Tigers were 33-1 to make the playoffs at ESPN BET, and their odds to win the World Series were as long as 500-1 in early September at some sportsbooks. On Friday, Detroit was 30-1 to win the World Series at ESPN BET.
"With every player I hugged, I had a flashback to some moment of adversity they faced, or some moment where we challenged them to do something differently and all of these guys did," Harris said on the field following the game. "They rose to the occasion, and they deserve it. I'm really, really proud of them."
The Tigers came out of the gates strong in April, winning six of their first seven games in their second full season under Harris and A.J. Hinch's fourth year as manager. They had a winning record until mid-May, when the team started to slide in the standings.
They appeared to be out of pitching at the end of July when Kenta Maeda was demoted to the bullpen, Casey Mize and Reese Olson were injured and Jack Flaherty was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Each time it looked like the Tigers might rally, they would fail to sustain success and many fans in the state turned their attention to football.
Hinch got creative, rolling with a rotation of Skubal and rookie Keider Montero while relying on the bullpen to pitch entire games such as the series opener against the White Sox in front of 44,435 fans at Comerica Park.
Skubal and Montero have combined to go 11-3 since Aug. 1, but only one other starting pitcher has won a game, and that was Brant Hurter against the Los Angeles Angels a month ago.
The Motor City's baseball team salvaged the season and revived interest, drawing big crowds after closing recent seasons in a mostly empty ballpark.
"It's been a long time since this organization was in the playoffs and these fans deserve it," Harris said.
ESPN's David Purdum and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Detroit Tigers incredible MLB playoffs berth one of the greatest in city's history
Christopher Ilitch was dry.
Way too dry.
So, Riley Greene calmly walked up to the Tigers owner and fixed a pair of goggles on his face.
Then, Greene led Ilitch across the champagne-soaked clubhouse in Comerica Park on Friday night after the Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox and clinched a berth in the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
“Yo, hey!” Greene screamed to his teammates. “Hey! Hey! Hey!”
If you ever wondered about the newly 24-year-old Greene's stature in this organization — or even his pure, fearless confidence — it was clear at that moment.
Greene held two beer cans in his left hand and wrapped his right arm around Ilitch, pulling him into the mayhem. They reached the center of the celebration and several players kind of went: Holy crap, there’s the owner!
The players started jumping up and down, like they were on the dance floor at a club, and Ilitch was jumping up and down. Ilitch lifted both his arms in the air, and it was like being inside a shower of champagne and beer, and oh my gosh, can you believe this?
They did it.
This young, determined, resilient, energetic, athletic — and still-developing — team beat the odds and made history.
Ilitch lifted off his goggles and high-fived Matt Vierling.
“Incredible!” Ilitch said a moment later.
Yes, incredible.
As the team was celebrating, manager A.J. Hinch stood along the edges, trying to soak it all in.
Trying to remember every second of this.
Because the Tigers just did something absolutely remarkable. This team was 55-63 — eight games under .500 — on Aug. 10. They had traded productive major-leaguers (hey, Jack Flaherty) and were left for dead — or at least a high draft pick.
But they kept fighting, kept working, kept battling, kept playing one game at a time — like Hinch preaches — but most importantly, kept winning, and here they are in the playoffs.
The only other team to do that in baseball history? To climb out of that kind of hole? The 1973 Mets, back when there were two divisions in each league, and four playoff spots in all.
“I'm pretty overwhelmed that we've been able to pull this off, not because of talent, not because of belief, but because of the odds,” Hinch said. “We had to do a lot.”
Every player on this team has an unique story — from the rookies to the guys who have tasted struggles for years.
More:Magic for Detroit Tigers? Sure, but manager A.J. Hinch is the magician casting a spell
But consider, for a moment, Hinch’s journey to this moment.
Hinch knows Detroit. And he knows all the struggles in the Motor City. He played 27 games on the 2003 Tigers team that lost 119 games — an American League record until the White Sox broke it last week. But he also knows tremendous success — he guided the Houston Astros to the postseason in four of his five seasons there, winning the 2017 World Series.
When he was fired by the Astros in 2019, suspended for a season and stained by the franchise's sign-stealing scandal, he didn’t know if he would ever manage again. But the Tigers gave him a chance — a lifeline really — and he just led them on one of the greatest, most improbable sports stories (for the regular season at least) in Detroit history.
“It means a lot to me, you know, to be the leader of this team, and for an organization to take a chance on me, to put me back in this in this chair,” Hinch said, his eyes getting glassy, the emotion bubbling up.
“I didn't plan on talking about it, but it matters a lot to me to see a team respond the way they have, and get to October as a winner.”
Yes, they are winners.
Let that sink in.
After all the rebuilds, after all the trade deadline trades, after all the high draft picks, after all the painful losing seasons, this team is headed back to the playoffs.
“Ultimately, we want to see winning baseball in Detroit, we want to qualify for the playoffs, and ultimately, we want to win a world championship,” Ilitch said when he hired Scott Harris as president of baseball operations in September 2022. “We’ve been very clear, I’ve been very clear, that that’s the objective.”
Objective met — at least, the first stage.
Now this is a winning team.
No, it’s more than that.
It’s a playoff team.
Check, check.
Obviously, with more to go.
THE BUILDUP:Detroit understood the assignment and Comerica Park comes alive
As the team was celebrating, Hinch, Ilitch and Harris stood on the side.
“I'm super excited for Scott Harris,” Ilitch said. “It all starts with Scott. You know, he had a vision. He's got a plan. He's executing it.”
On Friday night, Hinch put together a lineup in which five of the first seven Tigers in the batting order were brought in by Harris, either through trade or waiver claims. And they beat the White Sox, 4-1.
“A.J. Hinch, what can I say?” Ilitch said. “Amazing leader. He's our field general."
It wasn’t hang onto the edge of your seat drama.
No, it seemed inevitable — the Tigers entered Friday with three chances to beat the White Sox and three chances for the Twins to lose, and needing just one of those six events to happen for a playoff berth.
This was more like a celebration, and Tigers fans filled up Comerica, 44,435 strong.
“Born and raised in SOUTH Detroit,” the fans sang.
Indeed. Don’t stop believing.
And after the game, the celebration started on the field — a seriously cool moment the fans could watch — and then spilled into the clubhouse.
“I don’t want this to end!” Greene screamed.
They were spraying beer and pouring champagne over each other’s heads and dancing and screaming and smiling and it was getting hot and sweaty and Spencer Torkelson was going through an empty bin of champagne bottles, seeing if he could find any more and ...
And?
“We need more beer!” somebody screamed.
Yes, the boys ran out of beer.
Quick note: If you want to have a fun time at a bar, invite Jason Foley — he’s wonderfully crazy.
And Greene.
And Jake Rogers.
And Tarik Skubal.
And, well, all of them. They all just seem to fit together perfectly.
“It means a lot,” Skubal said. “You know, the youth that we got trading away guys at the deadline, and then, you know, look at us now. So I think it means a lot to the guys in that clubhouse, and it speaks a lot about the guys in that clubhouse, too.”
It’s a wild collection of players.
DISTANT REPLAY:Tigers reach 17th postseason in franchise history: Here's their playoff history
A couple of absolute studs in Greene and Skubal.
But it’s mostly young kids.
“I wouldn't say that we ever felt like a young team,” Greene said. “We're just going out there and just trying to play our best version of baseball as we can.”
But it’s an incredibly close team.
A close team that left a heck of a mess.
“Jobe has to clean up the clubhouse!” Skubal screamed.
He was joking.
I think.
Detroit Tigers clinch first postseason appearance since 2014
Evan PetzoldThe Detroit Tigers were sellers at the trade deadline, parting ways with veterans Jack Flaherty, Andrew Chafin and Mark Canha. After Aug. 10, the Tigers were buried eight games under .500 and 10 games back in the wild-card race, with a 0.2% chance to make the playoffs.
Less than 50 days later, the Tigers punched their ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2014.
"We never stopped believing," Riley Greene said.
The Tigers needed one win in three games against the Chicago White Sox to clinch an American League wild-card spot. They didn't waste any time, winning 4-1 in Friday's series opener to advance beyond the regular season, which ends Sunday.
The postseason starts Tuesday.
"We feel really good about how we're doing it, not just what we're doing," fourth-year manager A.J. Hinch said before Friday's game. "We put a lot of work in to play as consistently as we can and bring it every day. The DNA, the personality of this club is very special. We don't think much of it. We really just come to play and win. We've done a lot of that recently, and we hope to do more."
FRIDAY'S CLINCHER:Detroit Tigers clinch AL playoff berth in 4-1 W; White Sox set MLB record with 121st L
The Tigers will open the postseason Tuesday against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park or the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The opponent and location for the three-game wild-card series will be determined by the seeding of the wild-card teams, which might not be finalized until Sunday evening.
Tarik Skubal, all but guaranteed to win the AL Cy Young Award, is the starter for Game 1 of the wild-card series. The southpaw has a 2.39 ERA with 228 strikeouts in 31 starts.
JEFF SEIDEL:Magic for Tigers? Sure, but manager A.J. Hinch is the magician casting a spell
"It's why you play the game, to pitch in the postseason and to hopefully win the big one," Skubal said before Thursday's game. "That's the most important thing in this game, and that's the most important thing to me. Awards, you care about them, but I'd like the World Series ring more than anything."
To get to the playoffs, the Tigers stepped on the gas pedal with a 31-11 record in their last 42 games, dating back to Aug. 11. At the same time, the Minnesota Twins posted a 12-25 record in 37 games since Aug. 18 to freefall out of the playoff picture.
The epic failure of the Twins opened the door for the red-hot Tigers to catch up.
Sure enough, the Tigers joined the 1973 New York Mets as the only teams to make the playoffs after being at least eight games under .500 through 115 games.
"This team, it's something else," Greene said, celebrating Friday night in the clubhouse. "This is awesome."
ON THE MOUND:How Tigers' pitching strategy from Scott Harris, A.J. Hinch is resulting in wins
Pitching was the biggest difference between the Tigers and the Twins in their respective end-of-season trends. Since Aug. 11, the Tigers lead MLB with a 2.60 ERA. Since Aug. 18, the Twins rank 25th in MLB with a 4.65 ERA.
What else sparked the Tigers' winning ways? A top-tier pitching staff comprised of openers and bulk relievers despite only two starters in the rotation for more than a month, the return of several position players from injuries, an increase in aggressiveness on the bases and a World Series-winning manager who pushes all the right buttons to set players up for success.
"I've been managing like Game 7 for two months, is what it feels like," Hinch said. "We want to win today's game, and we're going to use the guys that can help us win today's game. You're going to see us play the same brand that we've been playing with that has got us to this point. ... We got to play the nine innings, and we got to play to win. Whatever the game calls for is what we're going to try to do."
As of Friday's game, the Tigers had the youngest roster among the 30 MLB teams, an average age of 26.3. Only two players on the roster — outfielder Matt Vierling and right-handed reliever Kenta Maeda — have postseason experience.
The Tigers snapped a nine-year drought — tied for the longest active streak in MLB with the Los Angeles Angels — by reaching the postseason in 2024, the second year under president of baseball operations Scott Harris.
The Tigers hired Harris on Sept. 19, 2022, after firing general manager Al Avila.
"We're just going to stay anchored to what we believe in," Harris said after Friday's win. "We're going to keep trying to make the best baseball decisions we can, and then see how the team responds to it. I feel like we've done that since the day I've been here."
FOLLOW THE LEADER:Matt Vierling is leader of young Tigers in postseason race
In their most recent postseason experience, the Tigers were swept in three games by the Orioles in the 2014 AL Division Series, despite starts from Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Price.
The franchise has now made the playoffs in 17 of its 125 seasons, winning the World Series in 1935, 1945, 1968 and 1984. Since the 1984 championship, though, the Tigers have advanced to the playoffs in just seven of the last 40 seasons.
Seeding needs to be determined, but the six AL teams are locked in for the postseason: New York Yankees (AL East), Cleveland Guardians (AL Central), Astros (AL West), Orioles (wild card), Tigers (wild card) and Royals (wild card).
Of those teams, the Tigers took the most improbable route to the playoffs.
The magical run continues.
"It means a lot," Skubal said after Friday's celebration. "The youth that we got, trading away guys at the deadline, and then, look at us now. It means a lot to the guys in that clubhouse, and it's speaks a lot about the guys in that clubhouse. Hats off to everyone involved."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
Listen to our weekly Tigers show "Days of Roar" every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2409.28 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3375 days ago & DAD = 031 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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