A.J. Hinch Sends Defiant Message Before Tigers’ Crucial Series in Cleveland
· Yahoo Sports
A.J. Hinch is not waving the white flag.
What exactly is he supposed to do?
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The Detroit Tigers enter a four-game series against the Cleveland Guardians with their postseason hopes hanging by a thread. Detroit is 64-75 and sits 5½ games behind Cleveland for the final American League Wild Card spot with only a few weeks remaining.
Yet Hinch continues to insist his team will fight until the math says otherwise.
“This has been a really hard stretch and very much a roller-coaster season. I know in the big scheme of things, there is a lot of frustration around this team, but we’re not going to quit.”
Nobody should expect Hinch to say anything different.
What Is Hinch Supposed to Say?
This is where I separate what Hinch has to say as the manager from what I believe when looking at the standings.
Hinch cannot walk into the clubhouse and tell 26 players the season is finished. He cannot tell Max Clark, Kevin McGonigle, Spencer Torkelson and the rest of this roster that the final month is meaningless.
That would be managerial malpractice.
He has to keep pushing.
He has to keep demanding that his players compete.
And Hinch has been consistent about that. He already pushed back on the idea that Detroit’s season was over when the Tigers’ situation began looking increasingly bleak in August.
But believing Hinch is saying exactly what a manager should say does not mean I have to buy the message.
I don’t.
I’m Not Buying a Tigers Playoff Run
Could Detroit technically make the playoffs?
Sure.
That is why they still put percentages next to these things instead of stamping ELIMINATED next to the Tigers in the standings.
But there is a difference between mathematically alive and realistically alive.
Detroit has gone 3-7 over its last 10 games and has spent weeks wasting opportunities to make up ground. A team that wants to make a September charge cannot continually lose series, fall behind early, struggle to score and then point to the remaining schedule as proof that there is still time.
At some point, the comeback has to actually start.
Wednesday’s 11-6, 12-inning victory over Minnesota was encouraging, especially after the Tigers had been outscored 26-3 in the first two games of the series. But one dramatic win does not erase the hole Detroit dug.
Now comes Cleveland.
Hinch has made no secret of how important that opponent is. Earlier this season, he acknowledged that Cleveland remained the standard Detroit needed to overcome.
If the Tigers want anybody outside their clubhouse to believe again, this would be the place to start.
They need to beat Cleveland.
Then beat them again.
And probably keep beating teams for the next several weeks.
Maybe they do it.
I just don’t see it.
Hinch’s job is to believe until there is nothing left to believe in.
Mine isn’t.
In my opinion, the Tigers are done.
Now they have a four-game series in Cleveland to begin proving me wrong.