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Thanks to @Tigeraholic1 for another season of diligence with the game threads. Usually it was posted on time and sometimes it even had correct information. 😆

Disappointed but not crushed. Thursday morning I felt the Tigers had a great chance of winning this series and then giving the Yankees a scare. But since then has had the feeling of the bubble finally bursting. Even with a win today, Yankees likely would have handled them comfortably. But picked off one target at a time - finished over .500, made the playoffs, won a playoff round, hosted playoff games, got a home win for the fans after a decade away.

At least we can thank the government for not making it rain today in Cleveland. 🤣🤣🤣

I’m being a grown-up about this as much as the eight-year-old mentality that inhabits my body is able to. I never expected a run of this magnitude or to get this far in the postseason, or to even get into the postseason at all. This team is sort of the assemblage of a very smart doctor Frankenstein who used new body parts instead of old ones, a handsome assemblage which walked around and didn’t throw any children in the water. No reason for torches and pitchforks. I look forward to next year. GO TIGERS!

He’s from Vancouver and his parents are a lovely, humble Mennonite couple. It would pain me to have to egg their home if their son comes in and shuts down the Tigers.

My prediction. A solid game from Skubal with one mistake. A 2-0 game, Cleveland adds another against our bullpen, the Tigers rally in the 9th but come up short 3-1 with tying runs on base. I am at peace with what might end up being the most enjoyable season I’ve experienced. 1984 was better and I was around for it but let’s be honest… we follow the games differently today. I was 10. I went to maybe 4 games that year, not every game was on TV, and I was outside playing a lot. It wasn’t a day to day thing like now. Even when this team was at its low points the games were still competitive. I said that repeatedly this year. What it tells me is what the org is doing is working. It’s the players as much as the system. They finally figured out how to identify and grow just league average players which is what good teams need. This organization has turned the corner. It’s not a Lions situation where there’s a core that is going to grow. The Tigers will remain competitive by plugging in guys year to year that can compete for the playoffs and enter the crapshoot and hopefully fall into a title at some point.

Congrats fellas on your daily diligence and mostly unwavering support. It’s pretty cool to come here and learn things and make this a shared experience. Couldn’t be happier for all of us to be rewarded with the last two months. Here’s to the offseason and 2025!

Thanks for the ride, Tigers ! That was a lot of fun. Can we do this most years? What a great season. No complaints from me. Cleveland is a better team. They are where we want to be in a year or two. I hope Cleveland beats the Yankees, but they will have the full weight of MLB against them. Don't have to go nuts and spend a fortune, but there are players they can get. Priorities 1 - Sign Skubal. Just do it. He's your Verlander. 2 - Don't let Fetter get away. Make him the highest-paid pitching coach in history if they have to) 3 - Acquire another bat (Third Base?) 4 - Acquire another starting pitcher (Skubal-Olson-Mize-maybe Jobe). 5 - Just cut Javy loose. It didn't work. 6 - Get a platoon partner for Sweeney 6 - Find a decent backup Catcher. Don't think Dingler is quite there yet. They are going to need at least one more starting pitcher because MLB will stop allowing teams to use openers. Maybe they'll let it slide once every five days and if you think teams will get out of it by saying "pitcher's arm is tired after 2 innings", then they'll pass a rule that the pitcher has to go on the injured list The starting pitching criteria will be 1 - Must pitch at least 4 innings or Must throw 80 pitches or Must face opposing lineup at lest twice.

You, know, just thinking off the top of my head here, but… it's almost kind of like it breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops, or something.

That is a very powerful episode isn't it?

That's exactly what I hear every time hear his name. Also Cade Smith is Kate Smith.

Still plenty of game left, and Cleveland is burning RPs.

No … please … not the offseason thread … for the love of god, please, not the offseason thread …

I'm guessing if Vierling would've drawn a walk that Hinch would've then pinch ran for Carpenter. Probably figures with him on 1st he wants to see how the inning plays out before taking him out of the game.

I don't know where this ends, but looking at these two teams match up, all you would have to do is move Jose Ramirez from one dugout to the other, and the Tigers would have won the Div and Cle would be the WC team.

It seems like these Tiger plate appearances are going into deeper counts. That ain’t a bad thing this early in the game against the bullpen.

A real #1 pick would have hit it out. How's that? 😆

Hoping for a lottle failed reliever roulette from the Clevelands today.

Guys like Tork and Sweeney are what holds this team back. They're effectively automatic outs and you're trying to score despite them.

Vierling was totally anxious his first at bat, maybe trying to make it all happen right now.

Tigers in a blowout. 11-0

This feels about right. It’s way too much to expect from Skubal to carry this team. I’m not anticipating a Tigers win, but would love to be wrong. Regardless of the outcome, it was a magical two months and probably changes how the front office might be thinking about accelerating this team’s window in the offseason.

I have a box of cassette tapes containing audio bits from just about every game from the ‘84 season. I recorded them at the time - play by play calls of Ernie, Paul Carey’s 1-minute game recap he would record for WJR, conversations between JP McCarthy and Sparky Anderson, and morning game recaps by Eli Zaret to the WRIF morning crew. I really need to digitize this because I guarantee for 90% of this material I know none of us have heard it in 40 years. Maybe this offseason.

Truth

Ride, not drive.

How can anyone be disappointed with this season? They exceeded expectations, and the are pieces on the big club and the farm that bode well for long term. I think we are short a starter, and infielder, ( 1st or 3rd), and a right handed outfielder short. It will be fun to watch what Harris and Co. come up with

I'm pulling for the Gribe to take it all. From here on out, they'll get the exact same treatment from the sports media that the Tigers would've, and I want them to shove it in all of their faces.

Extremely flawed is a good way of putting it. They got an awful lot of mileage out of this team which was unexpected. Making the team better and not just expecting it to mature is really important.

Before you get too torn up, and most of us aren't today. This team is EXTREMELY flawed and look how far they went ! This bodes well. Those young guys learned a lot about composure this year. They have now come into a winning culture and that feeds itself. It's going to be very hard to get back there. Can't rest on ****. Changes must be made to be better. If you don't best the previous season then it's a disappointment. So next year it's ALCS or bust, right? Aim high. No more accepting mediocrity. Hopefully it's the start of a semi-long run.

BTW, go Ducks!

Tough to take but solace in knowing we have a good base of players and management in place that can draft and develop pointing to more good seasons ahead.

Helluva run, Tigers. Thanks for the fun.

it's been the Cleveland singles hitters, Kwan and Rocchio, that have done the damage. OBP, don't leave home without it.

Jake!

Give me a break.

Welp. Alright, Skubal, more bagels, please.

Can Cleveland throw Smith into that deal?

In fairness to Sweeney, he's being thrown against the best pitching team in the league after all of 110 MLB AB. The least experienced hitter in the lineup.

Re-Sign Skubal for whatever he wants. Do it.

I'm going to blame it on Cleveland's visitor radio booth containing a crappy mic.

We need for Boyd to revert back to his old self for this start.

I won't be disappointed in this team no matter what happens today. I'll be sad, of course, but how could any of us be disappointed in this? The winner of today's game is the team I will be pulling for to take it all. But I know the winner of today's game will not get any favors or calls from the umps in the next series. MLB wants LA vs. NY, they want Ohtani vs. Judge. They'll begrudgingly accept NY vs NY, but I don't think there is any way they're letting Cleveland or Detroit into the party.

I saw on ESPN that Hinch says that he's hopeful that Carpenter will atleast be available off the bench today. I'm doubtful of that but I like the fact that he atleast puts that thought in Vogt's head instead of just outright ruling him out for the game.

Having a MiLB team and a MLB team share the same park has to be a complication for the schedule makers, especially given the way the minor league schedules go a week at a time at a single park now. The AA Mississippi Braves are relocating to Columbus, GA this offseason. They will be known as the Columbus Clingstone Peaches going forward. The Rays would look good in Pearl, MS. For a couple of years. 😁

We have the potential Cy Young award winner going tomorrow, which is already off the charts cool because he is really fun to watch, and it is, of course, game 5. People have to step up. Get this done. This will come down to what it always does in baseball - a game of inches - maybe a bounce, a pitch, or a call at a base. Let's hope they go our way. Goal one; don't beat yourself. The world stops shortly before 1 pm tomorrow. There is a game to watch.

Going to a play instead of a series deciding playoff game? If you were single and there was a hot chick involved, I could maybe OK it. But this is messed up.

When is Matt Taibbi going to release a new #twitterfiles?