SEATTLE — The Detroit Tigers’ cross-country road trip, nearly two weeks in all, is finally — thankfully, mercifully — over.
Which is great news, because Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal is down to one pair of clean underwear.
“We get to go home and get to play in front of the best fans in baseball,” Skubal said Sunday, Oct. 5, after the Seattle Mariners beat the Tigers, 3-2, in Game 2 of the ALDS at T-Mobile Park.
While the way Game 2 ended was a bummer for the Tigers — fighting back to take the lead only to lose it again — if you look at the big picture, the Tigers are still in a great position: They are 1-1 in this best-of-five series in the second round of the 2025 MLB playoffs.
“I think we did our job,” Skubal said. “We have homefield advantage now. So obviously you want to win every single game but that’s just not reality. That’s kind of impossible to do. I don’t think that’s ever happened. It’s not that we’re satisfied going home 1-1, but I like to think optimistically, not kind of glass-half-full in that sense.”
The long, winding road
The Tigers have been on the road since Sept. 21 — when they lost 6-2 to the Atlanta Braves at Comerica Park.
That seems like a lifetime ago. So let’s try to recap it.
Back then, the Tigers were trying to clinch the American League Central. There was talk of magic numbers and scoreboard-watching but the walls seemed to fall down, as their massive lead in the Central collapsed. They played three games in Cleveland (two of them losses), then another three-game series at Boston, finally clinching a spot in the playoffs with a win one day before the season ended.
Then, they flew directly to Cleveland to play in the three-games-over-three-days AL wild-card round — with two wins in three days — just another step in a wild, crazy, exhausting journey.
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“It’s been a long time since we’ve been home,” said Jack Flaherty, who will be the Tigers’ starting pitcher when they play the Mariners in Game 3 on Tuesday. “But at the same time it’s been a fun kind of bonding experience with these guys. Like, we’ve spent a lot of time with each other, a lot of time on the road. Families have been traveling a lot. But it’s been a – just a bonding experience with these guys, got some long plane flights, a lot of times in hotels and a couple dinners together.”
That’s the crazy thing about long trips. They either split you apart or bring you closer. And there is no question this team is even tighter. Even as they change diapers and live in hotels and criss-cross the country together.
For reliever Will Vest, this long road trip has been more complicated because his son is potty training.
“Laundry with toddlers — or a toddler learning how to use the bathroom,” Vest said. “But that’s the chaos of it, and, you know, you kind of just embrace it, and that’s what’s fun. My wife, after we won in Cleveland, she was just like, ‘All right. On to Seattle.’ “
“I said, ‘It could be another month of this. You’ve got to strap it up.’ “
Yes, Tigers fans would take another month of this.
Finding enough runs
So, where does this leave us?
Some good, some bad.
This team is so offensively challenged that it needs great pitching and great defense just to have a chance to win. That’s a difficult recipe, but possible. When manager A.J. Hinch is pushing the right buttons, and the offense ekes out just enough, it’s like magic breaks out.
They’ve had some great performances during this run.
But when the pitching falters, even a little, they are in a heap of trouble. There is no margin for error. No room to breathe.
Can you win that way? Well, yeah — if your heart can take it. The Tigers won their wild-card series and are 1-1 in the ALDS because Hinch is a magician, and the Tigers have gotten some great pitching.
But one little slip?
And it’s serious trouble.
Which is how they lost Game 2 on Sunday night.
Winning as a true team
I have been on almost all of this journey with the Tigers — I missed the Boston trip because I took a weekend off to go to a wedding out of state.
But other than that, I’ve seen this journey up close.
I’m most impressed by how Hinch has kept this team together as the Tigers struggled in September — their 7-17 record that month was the worst in MLB history for a playoff team. There was no finger-pointing. No fractures. Somehow, he kept them believing anything was possible. He kept them focused on the next game, not the collapse.
And they won just enough to get into the playoffs and won just enough to spray champagne in Cleveland and won just enough in Seattle to head back to Detroit with the homefield advantage.
Two more wins (with two more games in Detroit) and they will advance.
They did it because, at its core, this team is a completely unselfish group that can best be summed up in Jake Rogers.
A year ago, Rogers was the starting catcher. But Dillon Dingler has hit so well that Hinch can’t take him out of the lineup. Rogers isn’t moping. Isn’t complaining. Far from it.
After Game 1 in Seattle, I saw Rogers sitting on a couch with Dingler, both of them celebrating the win. Rogers was literally slapping Dingler on the back. Rogers could have been bitter because his role has diminished. But he looked incredibly happy for Dingler. Incredibly happy for his teammates.
That’s who Rogers is. He’s just a good dude. But that spirit flows through this team. It’s unselfish. It doesn’t matter who starts or who closes, doesn’t matter who is in the lineup or who comes in as pinch-hitter. That’s the essence of this team. That’s the culture that Hinch has built.
Everybody is willing to do whatever it takes. And this team is better than its parts.
Now, to be clear, Seattle has a more complete team — the Mariners have better parts, with a far more frightening lineup. That’s why Seattle was favored to win this series.
But Hinch is a magician. And I wouldn’t be shocked if the gritty Tigers found a way to win and head to the ALCS for the first time since 2013.
And that’s where Tigers fans are key. You have a chance to give this team a tremendous homefield advantage over the next two games. That’s what Seattle fans did for the Mariners. The crowd was electric. Maybe the loudest I’ve ever heard for a baseball game.
And I have no doubt that Comerica Park is going to be rockin’.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Flaherty said. “Hometown games are incredible. Playoff games in general are incredible. You get to be at home, get the home crowd behind you.”
Interestingly, the Tigers did not take a red-eye back to Detroit. Hinch wanted his guys to get a good night’s sleep. So, they stayed in Seattle until Monday morning and then planned to fly back to Detroit.
What is Skubal gonna do when he finally gets back to Detroit?
“I’m gonna go to the field, actually, and get some work in to make sure that I start my Day 1 routine and then prepare for the next start,” he said. “But once that’s done, I’m gonna go to sleep and laundry. I got one pair left of underwear. Yeah, laundry and sleep. Wake up and, you know, excited to go to the yard to get a home game in the playoffs.”
So, the boys are coming home. Still alive. Maybe a little road-weary.
But just dang happy to be headed home.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Kerry Carpenter said. “We’re pretty excited about getting back home. It’s been a while. We’re excited to see it rocking.”
After Skubal does his laundry, of course.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers long road in MLB playoffs finally brings them home
