Detroit — Like after every regular-season finale, the bags were packed.
But for the first time in a long, long time — 10 excruciating years, in fact, a drought that predates every player on this roster — the bags were packed with uniforms, and the bags weren’t heading home. They’re heading for Houston, where the Tigers’ improbable season will continue with the franchise’s first postseason appearance since 2014.
Detroit and Houston start their best-of-three series Tuesday. Game 2 is Wednesday. Game 3, if necessary, is Thursday. All the games start at 2:32 p.m. Eastern, and will air on ABC.
The Tigers, left for dead two months ago, are about to get their closeup.
“I’m sure that people are gonna feel anxiety and pressure and stuff, the culture that comes with the territory,” said Kerry Carpenter, who hit a grand slam, the second of his career, in the regular season-ending, 9-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park on Sunday afternoon. “It’s just whoever can go play at their best, regardless of the pressure of the situation.
“Once the first pitch is thrown,” added Carpenter, one of 25 Tigers expected to make their major-league playoff debuts, “it’s the same game.”
The Tigers entered Sunday needing a win or a Kansas City Royals loss to play at Baltimore in the first-round series, but Detroit suffered a second straight loss to the historically bad White Sox and the Royals beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2.
So it’s on to Houston for the first-ever playoff meeting in major professional sports between the cities.
The Astros are as close as MLB has had to a dynasty in decades, winning two World Series (2017 and 2022) and seven AL West championships in the last eight years. They were expected to be here, while the Tigers, nine games under .500 in early July and eight games under .500 and 10 games back in the wild-card race in early August, certainly were not.
“It’s what we’ve worked for,” said catcher Jake Rogers, who got his start in the Astros system, as a third-round pick in 2016, before coming over in the Justin Verlander trade in 2017. “That’s what we want, and we’re happy.
“Got a lot of great players. It’s gonna be a fun series going to Houston.”
There are story lines galore for the Tigers-Astros series, including, of course, Verlander, who pitched the first 12-plus years of his major-league career with the Tigers, who took him No. 2 overall in the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft. Verlander led the Tigers to a pair of World Series, but they didn’t win one. He’s won two with the Astros, as well as two more Cy Youngs, though this year, at the age of 41, has been a struggle. He has a 5.48 ERA over 17 starts, and his role for the postseason is unclear.
Then there’s Tigers manager AJ Hinch, who led the Astros to the 2017 World Series title, the franchise’s first, but then suffered the fallout from the infamous sign-stealing scandal. After leading his team back to the 2019 World Series, he was suspended for a year by MLB following an investigation into 2017, and he was subsequently fired by the Astros.
The Tigers called him immediately after the 2020 World Series ended, after his suspension was lifted. Hinch talked after Friday night’s clincher about how grateful he was to the Tigers for a second chance. Now, he gets his chance to keep proving himself against the team with which he made his name, mostly for better and occassionaly for worse.
“Baseball, it’s gonna take you places,” Hinch said Sunday in the bowels of Comerica Park, as a Penske truck was being loaded with players’ bags and equipment for the evening flight to Houston, and an advanced scouting report on the Astros already sat on his desk.
“Sometimes, it’s going to take you places where you’ve been. So I look forward to the challenge.”
Said Rogers: “Baseball has a funny way of working stuff out.”
The Tigers and Astros will hold a workout day Monday at Minute Maid Park, where Detroit ace Tarik Skubal, the AL Triple Crown winner and a lock to win the Cy Young, will meet Houston ace Framber Valdez in a duel of lefties. Beyond that, the Tigers’ pitching plans are unclear, just as they’ve been for much of the past seven weeks, as they’ve ridden an unconventional plan, with openers and bulk guys out of the bullpen, to the franchise’s 17th and most-shocking postseason appearance in franchise history.
The winner of the series will meet the AL Central-champion Cleveland Guardians in the best-of-five Division Series. The Royals and Baltimore Orioles play in the other wild-card series, with the winner of that series advancing to battle the New York Yankees. The National League playoff field will be finalized Monday by a doubleheader between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves.
The 12-team expanded playoff format, launched by MLB in 2022, doesn’t give the lower wild-card seed a home playoff game unless they make it to the Division Series. The Tigers just drew more than 120,000 fans over the last three games, and players are dreaming of giving them more in-person baseball in 2024.
“That would be amazing,” said Carpenter, who doesn’t want the latest Comerica Park roar, after his grand slam Sunday, to be the last roar of ’24. “I know it would be sweet for these fans, too.
“We want to do everything we can to get back here and get a playoff game in Detroit, and there’s some home-field advantage here, so we’re hoping for that.”
Said Skubal: “I really would love it … but the focus needs to be, you know, on Tuesday.”
Comerica Park still will welcome fans for a Tuesday watch party; tickets are $5, a portion of the proceeds benefiting the team’s foundation, and are available at tigers.com.
It’s been a while since the Tigers and Astros met. They played a series in Detroit in May and another in Houston in June, the series taking place in the Tigers’ worst two months of the season ― their only two losing months of the season. The Astros (88-73) took two of three both times, and they split against Skubal.
The Tigers (86-76) are a much different team now, both in the names on the roster, and the vibe in the clubhouse, even while dropping a couple games, albeit pretty-meaningless games, to close out the regular season.
The Tigers were a 0.2% shot to make the playoffs in early August, which translates into 500-to-1 odds, but since have been the hottest team in baseball, culminating with Friday night’s clincher and subsequent champagne celebration. They’ve got a taste of what it takes to get to this stage; now, they want to stay on the stage.
They’re not ready to pack those bags for good.
“It’s what you dream of as a kid,” said Matt Vierling, who came oh so close to winning a World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022. “It’s why you play baseball.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
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