Reaction: Tigers’ season ends in a 15-inning ALDS epic | Tiger Territory

Reaction: Tigers’ season ends in a 15-inning ALDS epic | Tiger Territory

[Music] and welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory, part of the Foul Territory Network, presented by Fox One. I’m Kieran Steckley. With me as always is a man who always has something left in the tank. He is Cody Stavenhagen. How you doing? Doing all right. Not sure I have a ton left in the tank after that one, Kieran. But we can uh we can try to talk about it, unpack it a little bit. We’ll have several more months to talk about it and unpack it though. Yeah. So, we’re recording this uh Saturday morning uh you know, late game. I don’t know if you guys noticed Cody working hard there and and so we just thought it’d be a little bit better be a little bit fresher in the morning uh to kind of reflect and and look back a little bit. We’re going to save a lot of the big picture stuff as Cody said for later in the offseason. We have plenty of time for that. But uh just off the top, Cody, uh you were there. initial thoughts of you know seeing what was like like it hurts to lose but that was a historical thing that we just watched and you got to witness so I’ll just kind of hand it off to you here like what what what do you make of this kind of legendary postseason game that happened in Seattle last night? Yeah, I don’t think I’ve really had time to process it. I don’t know what to make of it. Where do you start? Yeah, it was an all-time great baseball game. It had pretty much everything you can want. It’s amazing the score was only 32 because it felt like there were so many pressure point moments and so many instances where the game turned, but not all that instant not not all that many instances when where guys actually crossed home plate. Um, a lot of terrific performances that will be forgotten. We’re going to talk about some of them. And if I don’t mention it right now, we might not say the name Will Vest, you know, we might not say Kater Montero. Um just something you know the pitching was was terrific to keep this game knotted. Um so many times in extra innings where it felt like someone was going to score, no one did. I I don’t know. I don’t have a strong like overall takeaway. Other than that, it was uh it was a pleasure to watch. It was incredibly loud all night. My ears literally hurt. T-Mobile Park showed up. America Tigers fans got some work to do. Um cuz they they kind of set a new standard out there, man. But it was phenomenal. Yeah. And again, there’s going to be some stuff that gets lost. Uh right before the Carpenter home run, that hustle double by Bayz was was impressive. And and Dingler, I believe I have this right. Again, it all runs together in the 10th inning. Dingler and Bayas both put charges in the balls that like maybe, you know, another inch here, another degree here, like those are out and then you you might end up winning the game. You know, it’s like game of inches. You’re right, though. Like for a game that went like over six hours, almost two games worth of of baseball. Uh, and so many kind of if points, but only to scratch five combined runs in this game. Kind of impressive. And I’m glad you brought up Vest. I’m glad you brought up Montero. Uh there were some what if guys that will be forgotten. But one of the things that we’re not going to forget is what we saw from TKO. Terooel who goes six innings. He allows two hits. The one run. 13ks. What was it? Seven in a row at one point. 13ks is the most uh is the most ever in a winner take all game I believe. I have that correct. Their last any postseason game I believe. And then seven straight. the most in any postseason game. 13 the most in any winner take all postseason game. Yeah. And and really like like if there was a bad omen that I thought you know during that game is when Naylor just like like they kind of like how do you get Scooble in a in a winner take all game? You kind of got to do some junky stuff. Some janky stuff. And he just kind of like throws a bat out there. Gets gets to second base. And to his credit, Smart Baseball IQ gets the third on a steal and uh and then and then is able to score thereafter. And it’s like there’s like little random stuff and they they did it. Give them credit. Uh but Scooble I mean just sometimes these these aces these elites, you know, they get micro, you know, analyze in the postseason and it’s like, oh, okay, well, you know, he lost to Seattle four times this year. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. In this series, Scooble was lights out. This postseason, Scubble was lights out. He just happens to start two losses to the Tigers, but that was an alltime performance. It’s unbelievable that TKO did not win a game in this series. He certainly did his best, man, to put to put that team on his back. It is strange, you know, um how it could all be different if Josh Naylor doesn’t steal that 90 feet. And a quick side Naylor, man. What a ball player. That’s could use other than other than maybe Javi when he’s when he’s focused a little bit. They they don’t have anyone who plays the game quite like Josh Naylor and and it again it shows by popping a ball that’s not even in the strike zone for a double by taking 90 ft putting some pressure scoring um the only run off TKO in an otherwise dominant historic outing 99 pitches. Um, I understand why you wouldn’t send him back out after that. Uh, even though it’s Trick Scooble, that’s that can be pretty risky. So, it makes sense, but yeah, I I I don’t know what else you say after. Ter didn’t know what else to say. He said, “I don’t really want to talk about myself right now.” He hardly talked about his outing after that outing. And it was also weird. It had literally been hours since he had pitched in that game. That’s a good point. It’s a long time. He Yeah, that was like yesterday, you know what I mean? By the time he gets to the to the to to the podium. So, yeah, just just all time stuff there. And then and then also Carrie Carpenter, like let’s try to hit some of the get some of the hits right here. He’s four for five. He has two walks. He has that home run off a lefty. And uh and and what what he has gets on base five times with a home run. First time someone’s done that in the postseason since like Babe Ruth or something like that. like like old oldtime stuff from Carrie Carpenter. He like he and TK really carried this team because outside of a couple other spots, there wasn’t really much else that the Tigers got from with respect to the, you know, the guys that came out of the bullpen. Offensively, there just wasn’t really a whole lot. But Carrie Carpenter carried this team really throughout the series. Oh, glad someone could hit. The Tigers two, three, four, five hitters were combined 0 for 23 with 10 strikeouts. Unbelievable. Actually, unbelievable. Imagine if someone could at least move Gary Carpenter to second base, but that that wasn’t happening. Uh Karp himself though was was as locked in as it gets when it mattered most. And yeah, um, strange this guy’s got a little bit of a growing October legend and he’s never advanced past the ALDS, but he’s got uh some big time home runs in Tigers postseason history. Had one that again for a second felt like felt like you were going to be talking about it forever and now it’s just again one of a million footnotes in this wild 15 inning game. All right, we’re going to get to some of the other storylines uh from this game, but first a word from our sponsors. October baseball is here. 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Minimum minus 500 odds required. Bonus bets expire 7 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dk&ng.co/audio. All right, coming back here. I did want to to bring up the Holton piece of this uh real quick because obviously in game four uh doesn’t doesn’t have it at all. Gets gets gets the hook there. And then game five, he comes in kind of the epitome of like what we’ve been struggling with with Holton all year. He comes in, he he rebas at the plate, he throws a cutter that is probably more middle and up than he would have wanted, but he gets and then and then the next one is a change up that’s just like straight middle, straight straight batting practice and and and that’s the tie game right there. Uh you me like you mentioned the o you know 0 for 23 with your 234 hitters. The epito the the pitching equivalent of that for the Tigers is Holton just not giving you production uh in in this series or at least in the in these two games in this instance. Like that’s your job right there is to hold and he didn’t make good pitches and and he got and he got burned for it. And that in addition to obviously tying the game, that’s late enough that that gives that Seattle uh crowd which didn’t need any more juice. Oh, that more juice and kind of set the tone for uh for for for the rest of the game there. So disappointing out of Holton because you got to you got to you got to execute there. I I don’t know. I mean, that wasn’t a good pitch, but that’s that’s a tough spot to enter with runners on base. Um Well, that’s his job, right? Well, if Kyle Finnegan did his job, he wouldn’t have entered in that spot. Kyle Finnegan is was an X-factor, provided so many great moments for the Tigers late in the season, was huge in the DS. Reality is he had he had earned runs in three different uh in the wild card series, excuse me, in the ALDS, he had earned runs in three different appearances. Um, two of them were were absolutely crucial. Two of them could be better if Kyle Finnegan could have given you a clean inning. Um, he’s a good pitcher. talked afterward about loving his time in Detroit. Seems to be some interest in wanting to come back. I think it’s a move that can make a lot of sense for the Tigers, but in the aftermath of that one, you know, you pitch him four out of five. Now, granted, the Tigers, man, they rode him so hard and you have to wonder if that played a role because the last three appearances earned runs on the board. Yeah. And uh and I think another guy that’s worth mentioning in this series, Troy Melton in this series, eight innings, one run, 8K. Uh he and not to mention what he had to do last night on obviously short rest or whatever. Like uh I think I I think we can officially say we all kind of knew it and all that stuff. I think we can officially say Melton’s a dude that they got they got themselves a dude here uh in that young right-hander. Yeah. Gosh. Again, they asked so much out of him. I was I was a little scared when they put him in, you know, one short rest coming off a 30 plus pitch outing. Again, rookie in the biggest moment of his life. He stayed calm. He delivered. The stuff looked nasty. He’s been so good in some outings. It does it does make you wonder like, do we have to redefine what his ceiling could be? And what could that mean for this franchise? because they they kind of need another another legitimate like star level starter. I don’t know if he’s that, but I think he’s really good. You got to pray he’s healthy and can recover this off season after a weird year in which the team um asked so much of him, used him to pitch in different roles. But yeah, I mean, you know, hats off to Troy Melton for everything he did both in game five and and really throughout this year. I’m pulling up the uh the box score real quick. It is amazing, Cody, that this 2025 Tigers team played a 15 inning game and did not have a single pinch hitter. That is like that’s hard to process. That’s hard to process. I like in extra innings there wasn’t really a spot that called for one. So, that’s not even a managerial criticism. And um the couple times in the in the um what do you call what do you call the first nine innings of a game? Regulation, I guess. Yeah, that’s that’s not really a baseball team. Regulation. Uh yeah, the standard nine. I like that. You know, the the reason AJ Hinch didn’t pinch it, a carpet bat that ended up being a homer, and there might may have been another bat or two was to keep some left-handed batters in the game. And um, you know, for the late innings, turned out the late innings ended up being 15 innings. It made strategic sense for the most part, which is it’s just weird. It’s just an oddity of the game, no doubt. Well, is there is there a point in a in a game that just go that just keeps going on and on and on that like like you can’t anticipate a 14th inning decision in the 11th, right? Like it’s just at a certain point you just kind of have to just go, you know, it wasn’t really as what extraing at bat would you have pinched somebody for? No, that’s what I’m saying is that like like like I’m I’m just saying like at a certain point when the game just keeps going like you can’t like like the chess pieces are all spent like metaphorically like you can’t like there’s nothing to anticipate anymore because you’ve gone past the the the standard nine, right? So like at a certain point this like there’s there’s only so many decisions you can make. You just kind of it and you run out even though you had the guys on the bench. That’s what I’m saying. Oh, they they weren’t out of decisions. There just wasn’t, you know, the Mariners were able to match up pretty well for the most part and there wasn’t a glaring uh in a tie game. I think you get you got to keep Parker Meadows defense in there in extra innings. Came up big a couple times. Yeah. So, I I think it makes sense. The one thing I almost hate to say this in a game that was so good and so entertaining, but kind of all night I was watching that unfold and I was like, man, these players are fighting valiantly, but all this all every one of the team’s flaws kind of also showed up. And it’s weird to watch a 15 ining just beautiful display of baseball and be thinking of like the front office, but at a lot of points in that game, I I was like the game in a lot of ways encapsulated the Tiger season. You know, I kind of wrote this. It was it was all these things and it was ultimately not quite enough. Um, you have a lineup that punches way too much 17 times. you have a bullpen that wasn’t quite deep enough and I hate to do the trade deadline thing but again if you had for example David Bednar and Kyle Finnegan instead of Kyle Finnegan and Raphael Montero is this game different Raphael Monto who you did not use you the thinness of your bullpin showed up um in a big way some of the other weaknesses of this team were just apparent and it was hard for me to watch that game and not think, imagine if you had one more piece here or one more piece here. Um, I don’t know. That was that was an active thought I had throughout that game. Um, we’re not going to get into all the offseason stuff yet. We’ll have a pod next week after Scott Harris talks probably addressing it more. But this team really for for all the good they have and for all the players they bring back, they have some strange and and hard decisions ahead of them, I think. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. Uh that they it was it was very much their game, but also very much not their game in in terms of just like how it played out and and and the guys that he relied on that had come up big even just, you know, the previous game just didn’t happen this time. I mean, look at McKinstry 1 for six. Uh Keith 0 for five, you know, Torque 0 for uh 0 for six. I mean, it’s like you can you can you can miss you can manage your bullpen, you can try to pinch it, this that the other thing. Certain guys got hit, man. Uh and and again we’ll we’ll flect more about this uh in in in more broader terms uh next week, but I did just want to say this like I you know I was my brother works overseas uh you know obviously everybody knows like my dad’s situation. He’s all good. So I got to watch that game with my brother and my dad and all time an oldtime baseball game uh that I’ll remember forever like that moment forever. So I just want to reflect on that like that it was special. It was it was special to watch like that kind of performance. You come up short watching Scooball watching Carpenter. I’ll be telling my grandkids about seeing those guys in the postseason, you know what I mean? So, uh, so I just want to say that that was an amazing experience for me even, you know, with the results of the game. And I know, uh, Cody once he gets a little bit more sleep in him will feel the same way about being able to have the privilege and the honor to to write and chronicle these historic uh these historic events in in the game that we love. And uh and so yeah, I just wanted to get that off the top here. Anything else, Cody, before we get out of here? Uh that’s the weird thing about this game, man. So many twists and turns, so many moments, and yet it’s so hard to summarize or even pinpoint like, well, what really mattered most? Um, no. I I guess not. Like I I don’t know. Do we want to talk about like the usage of Tommy Canley? Do we want to talk about the like strategic decisions? I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t matter at this point. It was uh ultimately a good year for the Tigers. A really a really weird year and a really stressful year. Again, it’s going to be fascinating to see what comes next. Um, in the end the the Tigers took the weirdest possible path to AL ALDS game five, but I think like I had said was it I I think it was kind of fitting like this team again they fought really hard and and I mean a lot of this a lot of the bad parts are on the players the players who just did not perform some of them who just did not play up to their capabilities. But um this probably wasn’t an ALCS team as you watched it down the stretch, right? I mean, they were just man, they just didn’t have enough in both game five and in many other instances down the stretch of this season. they they were kind of an ALDS team, you know, and I I think that is better than sputtering out in the wildard round or, god forbid, missing the playoffs entirely, but this kind of ended and it’s like it well it doesn’t feel great, you know, but it feels probably right. I think they kind of ran out of the I think people around the Tigers get mad when you use the term smoke and mirrors, but they kind of ran out the smoke and mirrors were only going to be able to carry them so far. It carried them 15 that and sheer willpower carried them 15 innings into the night. But for this to end end in the ALDS, the same place you ended last year, it’s tough. Sucks. It’s unfortunate. It’s probably fitting. It’s probably fitting. You want to be one of the final four teams in uh in your league and and have a chance and they did that. It’s not good enough. The standard is raised. We’ll talk about all that stuff uh throughout the offseason, but this specific team, I do agree. It did feel like it’s it reached its natural uh its natural end point. Uh I I I would agree with that. All right. You can follow us on X for me on Twitter. I’m Karen_ste page, Tiger Territory YouTube, Instagram, Apple, Spotify. We’re not going anywhere. We will be here throughout the offseason breaking it down, analyzing, predicting, overreacting, doing all that good stuff because uh because we because we enjoy doing it. We appreciate you guys following along all season and uh like I said, stay tuned for an interesting offseason. So for Coach Denhagen, I’m Kieran Steckley.

The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen and cohost Kieran Steckley react the morning after a 15-inning classic ALDS game against the Seattle Mariners.

What is the right way to feel after this one? How dominant was Tarik Skubal? How close was Kerry Carpenter to October legend status? Who were the other unsung heroes … and how did the Tigers’ roster flaws come back to bite them?

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