Jon and Jim recap the Tigers' tension-filled 3-1 victory in Game 1 of the AL Wildcard vs. the Houston Astros.
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00:00and exhale playoff baseball, man. Nothing like it, not like it to get the heart racing.
00:11You win the first one last two years. It's been, it's, it's been a sure thing. Does this
00:17history continue to tell us that story? If history's right, the series is over. You still
00:24have game two today, but John came one. It brought you back to the emotions of playoff
00:29baseball. It's the ninth inning. You got the bases loaded. You're pitching your second
00:33reliever in the frame and you need to get out of this. It's a two run game. You need
00:38to get out of this. You've led the entire way and they do. But when he made contact,
00:44Oh my goodness. It's a line drive to the right side of the infield. I'm going, Oh no, I bases
00:50loaded. And first of all, even before you, before contact, you're thinking you can't
00:56walk in the next run. Like this can't be what's happening. I, these are what's going
01:01through my mind. And then all of a sudden the liner and I'm thinking to myself, Oh no,
01:08this goes to the corner. Could they, you know, not only are they going to tie it up, could
01:11they score all three and walk off? I was just thinking not like this. Didn't want, I'd certainly
01:18didn't want to go to extra frames. Not like this. You're right. I thought brisky was dancing
01:23around a little bit and it probably the tightening of the sphincter in terms of, you know, Hey,
01:29you eventually got to throw a strike. You know, you can try to paint and nibble and
01:33do all this stuff all you want. But you know, there was just that playoff aura and a little
01:39more tenseness in it. But I'm glad he, he followed through and you can't cause the walks
01:45are the worst. He was falling behind. He's got a grin on his face. Like I said, sphincter.
01:49No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. I'm just smiling because the tigers
01:56I'm thinking about another home game at Comerica. Well, okay. And I know that's way too early.
02:04I know they haven't finished anything, but when you win the first game and you start
02:08thinking about what, what has happened the last two years, you win the first game, you
02:12win the series. And I'm just thinking about what it would be like to have a home game.
02:17Okay. So it's not way too early. They're one win away. And people have started thinking
02:21about it because if they advance Saturday is game one of the ALDS in Cleveland, Monday
02:27is game two Detroit would host game three and four if necessary. But game three would
02:33be Wednesday of next week. I don't think you're wrong for looking at it based on history based
02:37on the fact that the tigers are playing better ball than Houston lately. And that they are
02:41in complete control of the series. I thought that was a huge part of yesterday's game is
02:44that AJ Hinch was in control of the chessboard because the tigers scored a couple runs early.
02:50And of course it's the gritty tags. It's the eight, nine, one hitters with two outs. Of
02:54course. Now they left 11 on base and there's some missed opportunities, but they were running
02:58aggressive. They were making contact. They chased Valdez out of the game and school ended
03:02up pitching six. They were in control. AJ got to get carpenter into the game. He got
03:07to get Colt Keith into the game. He got to play his matchups. He got to use Holton at
03:12the end of the eighth. I think Foley was the right move to start the ninth and he didn't
03:16leave him out there too long. It was the minimum plus a bunter and he got him out of there.
03:21But AJ was in control of that game. And now AJ is in control of the series, which is why
03:25it's not too early to start thinking about it. And what was so exciting about yesterday
03:29was like you mentioned three runs early and with two outs, all of the things that, that
03:35you're okay. This is the opportunity. And as soon as they start knocking in runs and
03:39you know, you've got school on the mound, but then it seemed like every inning they
03:44were on the attack. There were base runners and yeah, you don't want to strand as strand
03:49as many, but you got to give yourselves opportunities. The more opportunities, eventually something's
03:55going to happen. Fortunately, they took advantage of the first opportunity.
03:58Well, and it put pressure on them every inning. It made more stressful pitches for their staff
04:03in a series where you got to empty things out and go forward every single game pressure.
04:08It didn't feel like the Tigers felt the pressure. This is a young baseball team, 12, 13 rookies,
04:13right? This is a group that doesn't have post-season experience. I thought AJ after the game saying
04:18it didn't look like the moment was too big for these guys. This team played as loose
04:22as they played the last seven weeks of the season. I thought that was as important as
04:26anything because there would have been this idea. Okay. They're the, the Astros, right?
04:30These guys have played a hundred playoff games since 2015. Their experience, their, the Tigers
04:34came out and had the right approach. Oh yeah. The moment was not too big for this baseball
04:39team. No, the importance of scoring runs early helps relieve the pressure, especially when
04:44it's the bottom of the lineup. You know, you get a three nothing lead. It's a lot easier
04:47to play than a, you know, it's still zero zero in the top of the seventh and your ACE
04:51is out of the game or something like that, by the way, it never gets mentioned this way,
04:56but a great example of why not to bunt in that ninth inning. Thank you Astros for giving
05:02us an out because that was tense and I'm not sure tigers get out of it. I know you
05:06advance the runners. You put the winning run at second, take the double play. I get all
05:12that, but a lot of times it doesn't get, it only gets glossed over and talk about when
05:16it works or when you don't bunt, but when you do button in it, I'm glad they gave up
05:20and out because they, they needed it for confidence. Like Foley was reeling at that point. And,
05:26yeah, thank you for the free out of the ninth inning. But, but it's also the, the tigers
05:33with so many young players were able to feel that pressure. They're able to learn that
05:40lesson in a win because things got tight in the eighth, got even tighter in the ninth
05:46and to be able to come out of it with a win. I mean, we always talk about the inexperience
05:52in the playoffs and at some point, yeah, there's going to be something that costs the
05:56tigers because they haven't been in these situations. They're, they're just, they're
06:00not this, they're not built the same as other teams. They are winning. But if you're going
06:05to have that pressure, whether it's pitching staff, it's the field, it's at bat, but you're
06:12able to come through in a win. Now you start to stack that experience on whatever is next.
06:18And you stack that experience on whatever is next.
06:21Is Michael K who had the call who said at the end of the game, and just like that, the
06:26tigers have playoff experience. That's how that works. Once you play a playoff game,
06:31it's not so scary. I mean, it's, it's nerve wracking for us. It's still going to be scary
06:35heart racing. But for these players are like, Oh, this is just a baseball game. And if we
06:38go out and we attack it the right way, we can win with these guys. Aren't invincible.
06:42Nobody is invincible. The tigers feel like the, the team that that's invincible at this
06:47point. How were you watching the ninth inning pacing? I'm, I'm, I'm really curious as to
06:54how everybody was watching the ninth inning. Tom, how were you watching the ninth inning?
06:59Well, Jim doesn't know this. He asked me this when I walked in this morning, our TV was
07:05experiencing issues yesterday. So about the seventh inning on, I couldn't watch. So I
07:10went to the odyssey app. It's a great listen. There you go. And everything's going smooth
07:15and attention. And I could tell, especially my 15 year old son, Connor was picking up
07:18on the every pitch battle of playoff baseball when he got, you know, runners on in the ninth
07:25and you're trying to close the deal. And we get to what was it? The last pitch, the Hayward
07:31and my phone ring literally as Dan was ready to call it. And it was somebody from here
07:37with a legitimate thing that had to be addressed. But when my phone rings, it turns off the
07:42odyssey app. Yeah. I didn't hear the final call. So I, I killed that call like within
07:46a half a second, but the app still didn't come back on. So I had to go reopen the app.
07:52And then I hear, Oh, great. Well, first win, very anticlimactic in the military house.
07:59For me, I was, I was running around yesterday afternoon, you know, picking up kids, dropping
08:04off kids. So I was listening to the majority of the game on the radio and I found it very
08:09comforting to listen to listen to Dan. I thought it was great. And then I get home, I'm in
08:16the kitchen. I'm, I'm, you know, doing some things, getting ready for dinner and I'm watching,
08:22I've got it on my iPad. And then I, I, it was so stressful cause I was, I was walking
08:28back and forth and I'm nervous eating at the time and I'm doing all of this stuff. And
08:32then all of a sudden I'm like, you know what? I was comfortable earlier when I was listening
08:35to Dan. So I, I muted, I still wanted to be able to see it. And then I turned on Dan on
08:42the odyssey app and it was, it was easier for me to go that route and listen to it.
08:48It was, yes, it was comforting. It was, it was a friendly, it was, I was listening to
08:52a friend and it took me back to Ernie Harwell when I was a kid listening to all those great
08:55moments. It just made me feel comfortable and gave me some confidence. And then the
09:01Tigers come away. So I'm curious, everybody else, how did you take in especially the ninth
09:05inning? Yeah. Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97. I was standing for most of that
09:09game and I was definitely pacing at the end of that game. Oh my goodness. Nervous energy.
09:14And we haven't had that feeling in a long time. It's a great feeling when your team
09:17wins it down. No, you can't sit still. That was theater. It was drama. It was everything
09:23playoff baseball is supposed to be. And it's a Tigers who are want to know one went away
09:27from advancing one went away from home playoff games coming back to, I want to just hit something
09:32in that ninth inning because I saw this debate about why Holton didn't stay in. So Holton
09:37got the final out of the eighth inning and they had your Don Alvarez do up a lefty to
09:42start the ninth inning. And AJ went with Foley and it didn't go well for Foley. So people
09:47were saying, well, why didn't Holton stay in? I think AJ did the right thing. Alvarez
09:53is actually better against left-handed pitching. And if Holton had stayed in, he would have
09:59had to face the three minimum batters. So we faced one, he would have had to face two,
10:03which meant Alvarez and Bregman. So essentially two guys that like to hit lefties. So AJ went
10:10with Foley who has neutral splits, who actually was the better matchup against both of those
10:16bats. Now it didn't work out that way, but AJ played the numbers, which is what he's
10:20done all along. And then he didn't leave Foley in too long, the minimum plus a bunter.
10:24He got him out brisky, got the, got the, the outs at the end of the game. I think AJ actually
10:28managed it well. And in doing so secondarily, it frees up Holton to, to open the game today.
10:34Yeah. He was thinking about the next inning, which is today. First inning two 35 right
10:41back out there. Tyler Holton, you only threw two pitches.