Tigers Manager AJ Hinch Doesn't Hide Excitement After Win Over White Sox
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Going into the season, the Detroit Tigers were looking to take it at least one step further in the playoffs after falling in five games to the Seattle Mariners in last October's American League Division Series.
However, with a slow start to the season, the Tigers were behind the eight ball from the beginning, and the front office made some tough trade deadline decisions, sending Tarik Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Casey Mize to the San Diego Padres. With eight games remaining in the season, they are five games out of the final American League wild-card spot.
It would be easy for the Tigers to pack things in this season over the final couple of weeks, but that has not been the case under manager AJ Hinch. After taking two of three to put a dent in the Toronto Blue Jays' playoff hopes this week, Detroit began a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox in the Windy City on Thursday night.
After dropping the opening game, the Tigers bounced back in a big way on Friday night to deal a blow to the White Sox's chase for the AL Central Division title. Hinch was impressed by his team's fight after falling behind big early in the game.
AJ Hinch Happy With Tigers Come From Behind Win Over White Sox
After grabbing an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, Detroit gave up six runs in the home half and two more in the bottom of the third to face an 8-2 deficit. However, instead of rolling over, the Tigers scored the game's final nine runs, including a five-run eighth inning to pick up an 11-8 win, behind home runs from Riley Greene and Hao-Yu Lee.
“It was good to see our guys pick up each other,” Hinch said, per Jason Beck of MLB.com. “We made mistakes tonight. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re not going to play perfectly. We can play better than we did in parts of that game. There’s a lot that goes into wins like this.”
The loss kept Detroit's slim playoff hopes alive, but it did some pretty big damage to the White Sox's chase for the division. That loss, coupled with the Cleveland Guardians' 5-3 win over the Athletics, dropped Chicago one game behind for the top spot.
Detroit knows just how important winning the division is when it comes to the MLB playoffs. You get at least the wild-card round in your park. But Detroit has an opportunity to play spoiler this weekend and they certainly did that on Friday night, rallying from an early six-run deficit to pick up a win that many thought was not possible earlier in the game. There is a lot of fight remaining in Hinch and his team.
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Scott Roche has covered both college and professional sports for nearly three decades for various outlets. Scott has covered the MLB, NHL, and college sports and he is someone always looking for a good rumor, no matter which sport it is.