{"id":174319,"date":"2025-09-28T01:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T01:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/174319\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T01:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T01:47:07","slug":"detroit-tigers-clinch-playoff-berth-with-win-over-boston-red-sox-and-avert-september-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/174319\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Tigers clinch playoff berth with win over Boston Red Sox and avert September collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON (AP) \u2014 The Boston clinch party moved across the diamond.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after the Red Sox drenched the home clubhouse at Fenway Park to celebrate their postseason berth, the Detroit Tigers<\/a> were spraying Champagne in the visitors\u2019 locker room Saturday after beating Boston to earn a spot in the American League playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t forget to celebrate, I\u2019ll tell you that,\u201d Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told reporters as he ducked into a hallway to try to get away from the postgame mayhem. \u201cWe\u2019re having a good time because we\u2019ve earned it. But it\u2019s very rewarding to get to the postseason, no matter how you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After blowing a 14-game lead in the AL Central and an eighth-inning lead on Friday night that would have secured their spot a day earlier, the Tigers beat the Red Sox 2-1 on Saturday. Assured at least a wild card, Detroit can still win the division and host a first-round series \u2014 but only with help from Cleveland.<\/p>\n

The victory with one game to play averted a collapse that would have been among the biggest in baseball history. The Guardians, who were in fourth place and 15 1\/2 games back on July 7, can still post the biggest comeback ever if they win their last two games (or one if Detroit loses on Sunday).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be watching and paying attention to what\u2019s going on around the league,\u201d said Hinch, who will save ace Tarik Skubal<\/a> for the Wild Card Series opener on Tuesday instead of using him to try to win the division on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guys earned this celebration,\u201d the manager added, \u201cand because of how good we were for the majority of the season, we were able to withstand a really tough stretch and finish with a couple of wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Vest<\/a> retired Carlos Narv\u00e1ez on a groundout to third for the final out, pumping his fist in celebration before his teammates joined him at the mound. Before returning to the raucous clubhouse, the Tigers donned blue \u201cOctober Baseball\u201d T-shirts \u2013 just like the red ones the Red Sox wore the night before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely hated it\u201d watching Boston celebrate the night before, designated hitter Jahmai Jones<\/a> said. \u201cI hate losing. So when you feel like it\u2019s going to happen on night one, and it didn\u2019t, everybody kind of understood the kind of taste that left in our mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we knew that we had a great opportunity the next day,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we really focused today on trying to get that win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the clubhouse, Hinch tried to pull reporters away from the commotion, but Skubal tracked him down and sprayed him so enthusiastically he broke an exit sign hanging from the ceiling (which he then fixed).<\/p>\n

The team surrounded owner Chris Ilitch and \u2014 after giving him a chance to get his goggles on \u2014 drenched him with beer and Champagne. They made a circle and sang along to the music blasting through the room, then posed for a team picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball, it\u2019s not a straight line,\u201d Ilitch said. \u201cIt\u2019s a long baseball season. There\u2019s going to be ups, and there\u2019s going to be downs. We had a lot of ups and we had some downs, but here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Red Sox manager Alex Cora, whose brother Joey is the Tigers\u2019 third base coach, was feeling the tension before the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been tough to watch, to be honest with you. It\u2019s the total opposite of last year,\u201d when Detroit was 16 games back in July but rallied to earn a wild-card berth and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a really good team. We\u2019ll see what happens in the upcoming days. But talking to my brother throughout, it\u2019s been a grind for them. Yesterday was tough for them. So we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n

Jimmy Golen, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON (AP) \u2014 The Boston clinch party moved across the diamond. Less than 24 hours after the Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-174319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}