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The Detroit Tigers are on the verge of the unthinkable, and no one would blame anyone for pinching themselves by asking if that's actually happening.

But it is like that. And until it doesn't, you might as well let your imagination run wild as to where this might lead.

Why stop dreaming now?

The Tigers are one game away from the American League Championship Series after defeating the Cleveland Guardians 3-0 in Game 3 of the American League Division Series at Comerica Park on Wednesday.

Once again the Tigers did it their way:

The starter pitched one inning. The reliever threw three. The temporarily closer followed with two – in the middle of the game.

The cleanup hitter, who isn't always the cleanup hitter, got the key hit that his manager had predicted before the game.

And the substitute who started Game 1 and suffered a loss?

All Tyler Holton managed to do was save the ball and beat Austin Hedges to end the game. Repayment? No. These tigers don't believe in such things. They believe in faith and perhaps fate, and can you blame them?

AJ Hinch, the Tigers' master of playoff magic

AJ Hinch never loses faith. Especially because he is a seeker and reminds everyone that he is a baseball expert. Almost everything the Tigers manager does these days pays off.

He warned of pitching “chaos” heading into the postseason, and he got it — again. He said he would fill out his lineup card based on math, matchups and a touch of instinct and wouldn't worry about anyone getting caught up in his feelings.

Forget roles and labels, he tells us again and again, these are the playoffs and these are the Tigers – your Tigers. Who drafts rookies and Triple-A call-ups, young players and a few veterans, although calling anyone on this club a veteran is relative.

The Tigers are young and fearless and are gaining confidence day by day. You can hit and throw anytime, anywhere. If the manager thinks the team's best hitter should be brought in for a better matchup at the end of the fifth quarter, then just get Justyn-Henry Malloy.

You can imagine Kerry Carpenter saying that when Hinch Malloy batted for him with a runner on and one out. Because he's said similar things before when asked about scenarios like this.

Here was the hero of Game 2 – well, along with pitching ace Tarik Skubal – who had carved his way into Detroit sports history with a go-ahead home run in Cleveland on Monday and was in the dugout on Wednesday, so that the team could compete against each other percentages.

That's part of the magic too.

How else could you explain what keeps happening?

Grit? Doggedness? Imperturbability?

Sure, why not? The characteristics are visible to everyone.

But when Cleveland put runners on first and second and the Tigers went to the bullpen for the third time in an inning – Beau Brieske to Sean Guenther to Will Vest – and the No. 2 batter smashed a drive on the uphill line to third ?

Of course, Matt Vierling would time his jump at third base perfectly to catch the screamer and end the threat. And of course Vierling would jump up again, this time as he ran to the dugout, clenching his fist and shouting the words the whole city wanted to scream:

“Let’s (expletive) go!!!”

Tigers cause chaos of a different kind

You have the idea. And if you're late to the party, you're not alone. The brigade grows with the game, one clutch maneuver, one clutch shot, one clutch pitch at a time.

That nominal cleanup hitter?

That would be Riley Greene, he of the fluid swing, an enticing talent who struggled in the playoffs but was happy to talk about the team and his teammates before the game and gave no indication that he felt pressure.

So when he got to second with Parker Meadows and had a chance to take the lead in the first inning, the All-Star calmly hit a seeing single up the middle.

Five innings later, his closest clubmate and fellow franchise saver, Spencer Torkelson, also hit his first run-in. The maligned first baseman with the burden of draft expectations finally got a hit.

Torkelson, who had made 0-fers in 12 at-bats in the postseason, ripped a 92 mph fastball over the line toward the left field wall and drove in Colt Keith. When he reached second place, he raised his arm. Relief, no doubt. But ask him and he would tell you that he felt more exhilaration.

Keith, by the way, is another stalwart rookie on a team full of people who do things they shouldn't. Like Keider Montero, who got the start and needed six pitches to get three outs.

And Brant Hurter, who followed Montero and pitched 3⅓ innings, who gave way to Brieske, who gave way to Guenther, who gave way to Vest, who gave way to Holton.

Understood?

Good. Because these tigers seem to get it and continue to give it away.

Pitching chaos?

Secure.

But that doesn't begin to capture what's currently going on with our baseball team. How about calling it a playoff? chaosto?

Contact Shawn Windsor: [email protected]. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

On By John Fenwick

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