The Detroit Tigers could have given up on this season several times.
They could have called it quits after dropping three heartbreaking walk-off losses against the Cleveland Guardians, never once trailing until the final pitch. They could have folded after falling 13 games below .500 on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
And they could have mentally surrendered and packed it in after trailing by four runs to the Colorado Rockies – arguably MLB's worst team – in the eighth inning Saturday at Comerica Park.
But they didn’t. Not in any way. These young Tigers just kept playing hard, kept stringing together several impressive at-bats, finding some critical hits and crucial walks, showing growth and fight and, finally, scoring seven runs in the eighth to earn a stunning
11-7 victory.
“Came out with a really high-character win,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, whose team has won three straight games to climb back to 69-79. “Given how the day's gone, it's easy to drag a lot of failures into the back half of that game. Instead, I thought our guys stayed pretty tough.”
Now, let’s put it in perspective. It was against the lowly Rockies (55-93), a squad trying to avoid its fourth straight 100-loss season.
But a win is a win. And these experiences are incredibly important for this incredibly young, highly impressionable team that is still learning.
“This is just what this team is, man,” said Max Clark, who went 3-for-4 with an RBI. “It's really fun. There's no quit in our guys. I couldn't be prouder of them. It's really cool to see us battle through everything, whether it's injuries early, the trades, everything.”
And in this game, they found ways to contribute whether it was a drag bunt or getting a big hit or even a big walk.
“It's a continuous battle with ourselves,” Clark said. “We're really holding our ourselves to a high standard no matter what. And it's fun to watch right now. This team is energized, and nothing is impossible.”
Now, think of it this way: The Tigers used seven rookie position players in this game.
Seven.
And they all contributed.
Kevin McGonigle, the presumptive American League Rookie of the Year, had two hits, including a homer; Hao-Yu Lee, the rookie infielder, was incredible, getting three hits (including two for extra bases in the same inning), knocking in three runs and scoring twice; Eduardo Valencia, the rookie catcher, went 3-for-4 with a walk; Clark had three hits to lift his average to .273; Brett Callahan, the rookie right fielder, went 1-2; Ben Malgeri, the rookie outfielder, had a pinch-hit RBI; and John Peck, the rookie shortstop, had a huge sacrifice fly.
"That was a really fun one,” McGonigle said. “Bats were alive. Pitching staff did great. [Andrew] Sears looked great. Hao-Yu Lee with that big triple that fired everyone up. I just think you keep stacking good at bats like that, good things will happen.”
Yes, that’s Hinch’s mantra.
And it’s so interesting to hear it repeated by the rookies.
Learning by experience
Before the game, Hinch had a talk with the young players on this roster.
"We talked a little bit before the game with the young guys about small details," Hinch said. "Whether that's how we line up or how we defend or how we take the out that Kevin took on the butt, for example. Little things turn into big things in close games, and we're not performing in close games as well as we're going to.”
So, yes, this kind of close, come-from-behind victory, in which they did a whole bunch of little things right, does matter to this young team.
To show them what’s possible.
But it wasn’t just the win. It was how they won.
It started off with some impressive hits. There was a Lee double to left. The Gleyber Torres double to left. And a Riley Greene single to right.
Then, Valencia singled to center.
Now, at that point, after four straight hits, they could have started swinging out of their shoes.
They could have gotten greedy.
But they didn’t.
“The temptation after the guy in front of you does something well is to try to outdo him or do something too big,” Hinch said. "We ended up having patient at-bats, some timely hits and took what they gave us."
Yes, that's a learning moment, too.
Clark walked. Spencer Torkelson walked. And so did Malgeri. Then, Peck hit a sacrifice fly.
All those little things suddenly became huge things.
“It was you know a simple sac fly from Peck, which off the bat I thought was heading towards the gap,” Hinch said. “It was a patient walk. It's the fake bunt and swing by Valencia and just continual good at-bats.”
So, that was the lesson on this day.
The kind that can seep into a team’s DNA over time. Shared experiences that matter in the long run.
And for this incredibly young group, that still needs to learn just about everything, it brought lessons that were far bigger than this single win.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers showing lessons about winning starting to pay off
