SEATTLE – From his time managing in the AL West earlier in his career, A.J. Hinch knows how long it takes to visit this little corner of the country.
That’s partly why rest became such a priority for the Detroit Tigers during this American League Division Series against the Mariners, and why his team stayed in their own beds an extra night.
“Having been in the West before, we felt it in south Texas, especially coming (to Seattle), when we used to come out here three times a year, just how far these places are. There’s no way to speed through it. You can’t get the plane to go any faster, and you can’t change the time zones,” Hinch said Thursday. “And so we didn’t really pick anything up. We never had these type of overnight trips back and forth, but I think I learned along the way that sleep matters, nutrition matters, the consistency in your work matters.”
The Tigers and Mariners will play the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS on Friday night at T-Mobile Park. While the M’s flew back to Seattle late on Wednesday after losing Game 4 in Detroit, the Tigers opted to spend the night at home, held a light workout at Comerica Park on Thursday morning and then boarded their flight to Seattle.
The reason they stayed behind? They’ve barely been home.
The Tigers closed the regular season with their final six games on the road, finishing in Cleveland and Boston. Then it was back to Cleveland for the AL wild-card series before immediately heading to Seattle.
The past couple of days at home in Detroit were the first time Hinch’s team was home on consecutive days since Sept. 20-21.
“We went on a pretty long run of intense games and some travel. We ended with a 14-, I think 15-day road trip counting the playoffs in the first round, and then coming out here to Seattle,” Hinch said. “So time-zone change, families being everywhere, you know, not wanting to kind of split the group up, we chose to do some work at home today and then get on the plane and get out here rather than fly through the night.”
The Tigers’ situation is similar to the Texas Rangers’ during the 2023 season, when they closed on the road against the Mariners, flew cross-country to play Tampa Bay in the wild card, then went on to Baltimore to start the ALDS before finally getting home.
The Rangers went on to win the World Series that season.
Hinch joked that being on the road like this is not something to necessarily aspire to and that it can catch up with a team over time.
“But I think that it can galvanize a team,” he added. “I think that’s something that I’ve seen with our group, where we kind of took on the us-against-everybody mentality in September when everybody thought we were fading away. Were we going to win the division, and were we even going to make the playoffs, and did we have much left when we went back to Cleveland? And we’re going to come out and face a team that had the second-best record in the American League. And look at us now with Tarik Skubal on the mound.”
Tigers dismiss Naylor’s hand signals
Hinch said he didn’t take issue with any of the actions of Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor during Game 4 when he was being rather demonstrative and appeared to be relaying signs from second base.
At this point, everyone accepts it’s part of the game, so long as camera or other implements aren’t used.
“That is pretty standard nowadays,” Hinch said. “I know there’s been a lot of debates about what’s real, what’s not real, the gamesmanship that comes with the motions and things like that. Different teams are doing more outlandish things as they go — and the paranoia is real too.”
Naylor’s arm motions started in the second inning after he doubled for his first hit of the postseason with Tigers starter Casey Mize on the mound. Mize didn’t seem to appreciate how obvious Naylor was being and engaged in a brief stare down after striking out Eugenio Suárez.
Naylor’s signaling continued in the fourth inning as well, this time with reliever Tyler Horton on the mound and Mitch Garver at the plate.
The unknown is how much of it was actually the M’s having a tell and how much might have been bluffing as a distraction.
“I don’t have much take on it because we don’t pay a ton of attention to it because it’s a distraction either way,” Hinch said. “If it’s something that you’re doing, then obviously you’ve got to clean up your tipping. If it’s not, then it’s wasteful energy to worry about it.”
Times set for ALCS
Whether it’s the Mariners or Tigers, whichever team advances to the American League Championship Series at least knows the start times for Games 1 and 2 in Toronto.
Major League Baseball announced Thursday night that Game 1 of the ALCS will begin at 8:03 p.m. ET/5:03 p.m. PT on Sunday night in Toronto.
Game 2 will be played next Monday and will be the early game as that is also the day the NLCS begins. But the start time of Game 2 has not been finalized. It will start at either 4:38 p.m. ET/1:38 p.m. PT or 5:03 p.m. ET/2:03 p.m. PT depending on the teams playing in the NLCS.
Game 1 will be broadcast on FOX, while Game 2 is listed as FOX and FS1 as the broadcast networks.
The Mariners and Tigers will meet in winner-take-all Game 5 of the ALDS on Friday night at T-Mobile Park.