AJ Could Care Less About The Matchup

WXYT-FM / 97.1 The Ticket

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00:00Wow, what a time to be a Detroit sports fan.

00:03And look, some feedback coming in here, and this question I don't know, I mean look, we're

00:07all kind of hanging on the edge of our seat and can't wait for this Tiger postseason appearance.

00:12We get the following, are you too worried that the Tigers just dropped two or three

00:16to the White Sox going into the playoffs?

00:18Why or why not?

00:21I'm mostly not worried, and the reason I'm not worried is because A.J. Hinch made it

00:27clear yesterday that it didn't matter to them, Baltimore or Houston, and they weren't going

00:31to take up any energy trying to win that game to get a matchup.

00:36They've just come off a good series win over Baltimore, in fact two series wins over Baltimore,

00:41one in Detroit and one in Baltimore, but Baltimore is getting healthier and probably be a better

00:48team in the postseason.

00:53And if they're perfectly fine going to Houston, then, and that's what they said they were,

00:57I mean with their pitching plan Sunday included, hey, if we have to go to a fourth pitcher,

01:02we're going to McKinstry, translation, this game, we're going to try to win with the guys

01:08we have out there playing, but it's not particularly important.

01:12So that's why, I mean the White Sox are so dreadful, like historically dreadful, it's

01:16hard for me to dismiss losing to the White Sox, and you know, you don't want the carriage

01:23to turn into a pumpkin, but the bottom line here is, I think A.J. sent the message that

01:28they don't care, and it's all about the business of winning this baseball game tomorrow, because

01:34they don't do anything else, they just focus on the game, the one game in front of them.

01:38And he let everybody know last week that this was, that the plan was to not overtax this

01:44team, that we're not going to use Scoble, we weren't going to, unless they needed the

01:50game to get in, they weren't going to use them, they weren't going to use them, and

01:55he said specifically he didn't care about seeding, they weren't going to do things because

01:59of seeding.

02:00Now, do the Tigers have an advantage at all?

02:04Because they're playing against Houston and that's where A.J. Hinch managed for years?

02:09Why would that be an advantage?

02:10Just even just having the lay of the land and knowing just the area and trying to get

02:15everybody settled in, like, hey, look, this isn't really foreign territory, I was here

02:20for years, we can make this comfortable, we know what it's like, I know what the clubhouse

02:23is like and all this, but maybe just on the smallest of scales, that that's something

02:29that they're not going to be intimidated by this moment because, hey, we've been here,

02:34I've been here anyway, let's make us all feel comfortable, get out there, and it's also

02:38a team that they have beaten, all right, they didn't get swept by Houston, they won

02:44a couple games against the Astros, but no matter who you faced, it's not going to be

02:50easy, nothing's a cakewalk, but what they can do more than any other team in baseball

02:56is say, we're the best team in the league right now, doesn't matter, we lost two to

03:01the White Sox, who cares, those are throwaway games, literally, players are probably wasted

03:06still on Saturday when they played, not really wasted, but hungover, I'm sure a couple of

03:12those guys probably got after it a little bit harder than others on Friday night, so

03:17I don't care, they lost on Saturday, and Sunday's game, you know, that kind of sleepwalk, and

03:22then the base is loaded, Carpenter hits the grand slam, and a place erupts, and it's great,

03:27and, you know, they missed our opportunities, and, yeah, they didn't put their best foot

03:31forward with having Maeda pitch, and it didn't matter, I don't care, what I care about is

03:39getting ready, take that game on Tuesday with the best pitcher in baseball, go out and shut

03:43them down, do enough offensively to win, have a 1-0 series lead going into game two, and

03:48let's see what they do.

03:49Yeah, I'm not, you know, mostly I'm dismissive of it, but, you know, I mean, the bottom line

03:56here is that you prefer that they never lose, ever.

04:01Of course, yes, and this being, because it's a best of three series, it's all hands on

04:07deck for every game, and I like the pitching staff that the Tigers have for an all hands

04:11on deck in a three-game series, love it, I mean, the combinations that you can go out

04:18there and bring guys out to pitch in a single inning, if you have, if it's just gonna be

04:23single inning stuff, Jackson Jobe, who's so exciting, I know he's just a rookie, I

04:29know he's only got four innings under his belt, but somebody can throw triple digits

04:32and completely wipe a team out quickly like that, and then he can bring in Casey Mize

04:37for an inning if you want to, and he can ramp up that high fastball, too, and then, of course,

04:43we know what we've seen from Foley and from Holton and from the rest of them, I just,

04:47I really like what they can do in a three-game series.

04:50In a five-game series, best of five or best of seven, it's different, because it's stretched

04:55out longer, and then you don't have that, as much flexibility.

04:59A little bit of disappointing news, in that none of the games are on TNT or TBS or whoever

05:06used to carry games, so I'm not sure we're gonna get Buck Martinez at all, yeah.

05:11Tigers are on over-the-air television, they're on ABC.

05:14But it's not Bonetti.

05:16It's not Bonetti, no.

05:17But it's not Dan Dickerson.

05:18But we get Dan Dickerson on the radio.

05:20Yes, and certainly, I mean, I guess, we get the early games, right?

05:24We're 2.30 every day.

05:27And I don't know that that sits great with the Detroit fan base.

05:30I mean, sometimes bosses are cool about giving people an afternoon off.

05:36Are bosses giving three afternoons off?

05:39Are they allowing for streaming of the game at work?

05:41I mean, how is this gonna work?

05:44Because it creates some challenges in terms of productivity with local businesses.

05:49Well, you could just work remotely from 24 Seconds Bar and Grill.

05:52They'll be open at 2 o'clock to accommodate the Tiger crowd.

05:55You could do that.

05:57Where a lot of places are, yeah.

05:59Twin Peaks, makes for good scenic views.

06:02Makes for a good place to watch the game.

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