With the Detroit Tigers' painful reality of the collapse in the AL Central, they have gone through this season, the team still has a chance to make the MLB Playoffs. While the Tigers had a 15.5 game lead in the division at one point, that has quickly been erased, with them potentially missing the postseason as manager A.J. Hinch speaks on the team's mindset.
On July 8, Detroit had a comfortable lead in the AL Central by close to 16 games, but fast forward to the present and see themselves with a one-game lead in the final wild card spot. Hinch would speak to the media after Wednesday's 5-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians and reflect on the collapse, but stress the “focus” is on the games ahead to right the ship, according to The Athletic.
“As a baseball person, I know exactly what’s going on and what has gone on,” Hinch said. “I’ll have plenty of time to process all this in due time. But I try to get these guys ready to play the next day because it is the day that we can control and the day we can right the ship and get back in the win column. At the end of the day, this is gonna impact a lot of people, meaning the frustration and the magnitude of how we’ve gotten here. We got too many games to focus on that right now.”
A.J. Hinch on how the Tigers are feeling ahead of the postseason
As the Tigers went through the brutal collapse of their divisional lead, the team's approach to the final four games of the season is that they still have a chance to play baseball well into October. Pitcher Jack Flaherty got the start on Wednesday night, recording a loss where he threw 4.1 innings, striking out six while allowing five hits and three earned runs.
“You don’t make sense of it,” Flaherty said. “You just move on to the next day. [The Guardians], it’s some of the best baseball I’ve seen in September. … They’ve done their job. We haven’t done ours.”
Some could say that with the fall from grace for Detroit, the locker room's effort has been waning, but Hinch would argue with that notion.
“I don’t think it’s resignation,” Hinch said. “I think these guys are pros, and they’re trying their best.”
The Tigers finish the current series against the Guardians on Thursday night.
