The Detroit Tigers have all but officially fallen out of the MLB postseason chase, falling to 63-74 with only 25 games remaining in their campaign.
Their latest setback was an embarrassing 11-1 loss at Target Field in Minneapolis at the hands of the divisional rival Minnesota Twins, who are attempting to chase a Wild Card playoff berth and are only 3.5 games back of that spot in the American League standings.
The Tigers are feeling the heat, and manager A.J. Hinch didn’t hold back on how his team performed following their latest setback on Monday.
Detroit Tigers Manager A.J. Hinch Holds His Club’s Feet To The Fire After Their 11-1 Loss
Following the loss at Target Field on Monday evening, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch held nothing back in his assessment of how his team performed.
“Tonight was a really bad night,” he said via Chris McCosky on X, formerly known as Twitter. “You can pick any aspect; we got outplayed. It’s a bad feeling going back to the hotel after a game like that. Across the board, we didn’t do our job.
“When you’re not getting things going and you’ve got to chip away a little bit to try and get the game closer, put more pressure on them, and then they separated with some swings and then it got ugly with the position play,” he continued.
The Tigers, who managed to stay in the chase following the blockbuster trade of ace pitcher Tarik Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers and fellow starter Casey Mize to the San Diego Padres, have now fallen 11 games below the .500 mark, and time is critical.
Right now, the Tigers would fail to miss the MLB postseason for the first time in three years if the season were to end today, which will naturally begin speculation as to what kind of security that Hinch is afforded from those up top in the organization, including President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris.
The Tigers Were Embarrassed In Their Series Opener Against The Twins
The Tigers were dismantled by an 11-1 final score on Monday night at Target Field, with the only positive coming from a solo-shot from Hao-Yu Lee.
His 439-foot blast was Detroit’s only offensive offering for the evening; meanwhile, starter Jackson Jobe surrendered five runs, four earned, on six hits.
The Tigers and Twins will play the second game of their series on Tuesday evening.
AJ Hinch Doesn’t Hold Back After Latest Tigers Embarrassment