Detroit Tigers open playoffs with Houston Astros; Showtimes, TV here

Detroit — As after every regular season finale, our bags were packed.

But for the first time in a long, long time — ten agonizing years, to be exact, a drought that predates every player on this roster — the pockets were full of uniforms and the pockets weren’t going home. They travel to Houston, where the Tigers’ improbable season continues with the franchise’s first postseason appearance since 2014.

Detroit and Houston begin their best-of-three series on Tuesday. Game 2 is Wednesday. Game 3 may take place on Thursday. All games begin at 2:32 p.m. Eastern Time and air on ABC.

The Tigers, presumed dead two months ago, are about to get their close-up.

“I’m sure people will feel fear and pressure and so forth, the culture that comes with the territory,” said Kerry Carpenter, who hit a grand slam at the end of the regular season, the second of his career, 9- 5 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park on Sunday afternoon. “It’s simply about who can do 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 debut, “it’s the same game.”

The Tigers entered Sunday needing a win or loss from the Kansas City Royals to play in the first-round series in Baltimore, but Detroit suffered a second straight loss to the historically bad White Sox and the Royals defeated the Atlanta Braves by 4 :2.

So it’s on to Houston for the first-ever playoff meeting in major professional sports between the cities.

The Astros are the closest to a dynasty in the MLB 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, who were nine games under .500 in early July and eight games under .500 and ten games back in the wild-card race in early August, certainly weren’t.

“This is what we worked for,” said catcher Jake Rogers, who started as a third-round pick in the Astros system in 2016 before joining the Justin Verlander trade in 2017. “This is what we want” and we are happy.

“I have a lot of great players. It’s going to be a fun series when we go to Houston.”

There are numerous storylines for the Tigers-Astros series, including, of course, Verlander, who played the first 12-plus years of his major league career with the Tigers and was taken No. 2 overall in the 2004 Major League Baseball draft. Verlander led the Tigers to two World Series tournaments, but they didn’t win either. He won two with the Astros and two more Cy Youngs, although this year at age 41 has been a struggle. He has a 5.48 ERA over 17 starts and his postseason role 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 one year by MLB following an investigation in 2017 and subsequently released by the Astros.

The Tigers called him up immediately after the end of the 2020 World Series after his suspension was lifted. Hinch spoke after the decisive goal on Friday evening about how grateful he was to the Tigers for a second chance. Now he gets the chance to continue to prove himself against the team he made his name with, mostly for good and occasionally for bad.

“Baseball will take you further,” Hinch said Sunday in the bowels of Comerica Park, as a Penske truck was loaded with player bags and equipment for the evening flight to Houston and a detailed scouting report on the Astros was already on his desk.

“Sometimes it takes you to where you’ve already been. That’s why I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Rogers said, “Baseball has a funny way of sorting things out.”

The Tigers and Astros will hold a practice day at Minute Maid Park on Monday, where Detroit star Tarik Skubal, the AL Triple Crown winner and a chance to win the Cy Young, faces Houston star Framber in a left-handed duel Valdez will meet. Additionally, the Tigers’ pitching plans are unclear, just as they have been for most of the past seven weeks, as they have followed an unconventional schedule, using openers and bigs out of the bullpen, until they finished 17th and the most in the franchise -shocking postseason appearance in franchise history.

The winner of the series will face 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 facing the New York Yankees. The National League playoff field will be completed on Monday by a doubleheader between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves.

The expanded 12-team playoff format introduced by MLB in 2022 does not allow the lower wild card player a home playoff game unless he makes it to the Division Series. The Tigers have drawn just more than 120,000 fans in their last three games, and the players dream of giving them more in-person baseball in 2024.

“That would be great,” said Carpenter, who doesn’t want the latest ruckus at Comerica Park to be the last ruckus of ’24 after his Grand Slam Sunday. “I know it would be sweet for those fans too.

“We want to do everything we can to get back here and get a playoff game in Detroit, and we have some home field advantage here, so we’re hoping for that.”

Skubal said: “I would really love it… but the focus has to be, you know, on Tuesday.”

Comerica Park will continue to welcome fans to a Tuesday watch party; Tickets are $5, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the team foundation, and are available at tigers.com.

It’s been a while since the Tigers and Astros met. They played a series in May in Detroit and another in June in Houston, with the series coming during the Tigers’ worst two months of the season – their only two losing months of the season. The Astros (88-73) won two of three games both times and drew a loss to Skubal.

The Tigers (86-76) are a very different team now, both in terms of the names on the roster and the atmosphere in the clubhouse, although they did miss a few games, albeit fairly meaningless games, to close out the regular season.

The Tigers had a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs in early August, or odds of 500-1, but have been the hottest team in baseball ever since, what with Friday night’s deciding game and champagne celebration that followed reached its climax. You have a taste of what it takes to reach this stage; Now they want to stay on stage.

They’re not ready to pack these bags forever.

“This is what you dream about as a kid,” said Matt Vierling, who came so close to winning a World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022. “That’s why you play baseball.”

[email protected]

@tonypaul1984

Detroit Tigers open playoffs with Houston Astros; Showtimes, TV here

ByJasper

By Jasper

Related Post

4 Sources of Retirement Income Besides Social Security to Count On in 2025

Commanders, winner of three consecutive races, with Jayden Daniels in the lead

Elon Musk joins Donald Trump in congratulating the former First Lady after her book “Melania” became a bestseller in the USA

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You missed

4 Sources of Retirement Income Besides Social Security to Count On in 2025

Commanders, winner of three consecutive races, with Jayden Daniels in the lead

Elon Musk joins Donald Trump in congratulating the former First Lady after her book “Melania” became a bestseller in the USA

The cost of unmet financial goals every new year