SEATTLE — Tigers manager A.J. Hinch walked into the T-Mobile Park interview room Friday night with the remnants of tears in his eyes, his voice cracking as he tried to put the end of his club’s season in perspective.
For just under five hours and 15 innings, Detroit battled the Mariners in Game 5 of the ALDS for a chance to advance to the ALCS and extend its season. The clubs combined for one of the most memorable winner-take-all postseason games in Major League history, definitely the longest.
“That,” Hinch said, “was an epic game.”
And when Jorge Polanco’s 15th-inning line drive fell into right field for an RBI single scoring J.P. Crawford, it was over — not just the game, a 3-2 finale, but the season.
In games like this, the ending is that abrupt, that difficult to process.
“We have nothing to hang our heads down on,” Hinch said as echoes of the Mariners’ celebration seeped through the walls and into the room. “There’s going to be plenty of time to talk about the season, this game, the peaks, the valleys. But I’m extremely proud of that group in there for what we accomplished, and we fought tonight to try to extend our season.”
Many players were still working to process that ending as they sat in the clubhouse. Catcher Dillon Dingler moved slowly and sorely after catching 263 pitches from eight Tigers pitchers and legging out a 14th-inning double.
“It is weird. It still hasn’t set in yet,” Dingler said. “Obviously there’s one team that it doesn’t end for.”
“It’s tough. I think it’s meant to sting. It’s meant to hurt,” Skubal said. “It’ll hurt for a little bit, and then you have to re-channel that into motivation, to make yourself never want to feel that feeling again. It’s tough, but I think the guys in this room will use it the right way. I know I will.”
Kerry Carpenter, whose two-run homer in the sixth inning accounted for Detroit’s scoring and whose four-hit game accounted for half the Tigers’ total, thanked God for putting him in a position to be a part of this.
“This game was amazing,” Carpenter said. “It’s one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of. That was a tough one to lose.”
As the Mariners celebrated, several Tigers players lingered in the dugout. Some barely moved from their spot at the dugout railing, stunned it was over.
“Just watching an incredible game unfold, really,” said reliever Kyle Finnegan. “We were in it, battling all the way through. Both teams had a lot of opportunities. I saw a lot of really good pitchers bear down and keep the game alive. Just was watching and appreciating my teammates out there working their butts off to try to stay in the game.”
For fans of a certain age, the dramatic game and the heartbreaking ending brought back memories of the Tigers’ 2009 AL Central tiebreaker loss in Minnesota, a 13-inning marathon that left players in tears when it ended. That loss served as motivation for several players, particularly Miguel Cabrera, who became part of Detroit’s AL Central title run two years later, a run of four consecutive division crowns that still includes the Tigers’ most recent ALCS berth in 2013.
This team came excruciatingly close to ending that drought. It ended at the same point as last season, but with twice the pain. While the Tigers’ pitching extended the game, their offense struggled to produce the run that could’ve won it. Carpenter became the third player in MLB postseason history to reach base safely six times in a game, but Detroit stranded two runners each in the eighth, 11th and 12th innings, the last with nobody out after Zach McKinstry was thrown out at home plate.
The Tigers went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base, an exclamation point on a struggle that haunted them from September into the postseason.
“It felt the whole game like whoever made a mistake was going to lose the game,” said Javier Báez, whose daring slide into second base for a leadoff double in the sixth chased Mariners starter George Kirby and set up Carpenter’s homer off lefty Gabe Speier. “But it was a really good game from both sides. We just didn’t respond like we wanted to with the bats.”
It brings a soul-crushing end to a Tigers season that began with the Majors’ best record at the All-Star break, turned with a September collapse that cost them an AL Central title, then found new life with a Wild Card Series win in Cleveland.
