AJ Hinch knew that at some point the team would have to face some of Houston’s good left-handers in the bullpen.
The possibility of seeing a talented reliever like Josh Hader face off in the final part of the game was like a recurring dream for the Detroit manager.
That’s why the Tigers’s manager had given the order to his right-handed hitters on the bench to be physically and mentally prepared for when the almost certain opportunity arose to face the Astros’s potent relief team, including Hader at some crucial moment.
Also Read: San Diego Padres Advance to Playoffs and Fans Chant: “Beat LA!”
Andy Ibanez, who was not in the starting lineup, was in those contingency plans and as early as the second inning he headed to the batter’s box behind his team’s dugout, to keep his movements and his vision in condition to hit a left-hander.
“Andy, from the beginning of the game, knew that with Yusei Kikuchi on the bench, with Hader, obviously, on the bench, Caleb Ferguson and Bryan King, they were probably going to attack our left-handed hitters,” Hinch explained.
“We had six of them in the lineup. So we were waiting for him. As soon as the left-hander Hader did so much as pick up a ball, Andy already had his helmet on and was ready to go.”
Hinch, who has masterfully mixed and matched the bullpen with the bench, had no qualms about sending Ibanez to pinch-hit for Zach McKinstry in the eighth inning against a highly regarded left-hander like Hader. He had no qualms even though Ibanez had finished September with a .167 average.
“I know that September has not been the most productive month for me, but I have to trust in myself and I am grateful, first of all, to God,” explained the Cuban baseball player.
“Secondly, I would like to thank my coaches and teammates who helped me throughout the entire process to get a good result on Wednesday.”
After three foul balls, Ibanez unleashed a blast down the right field that drove in three men on base and would serve as the fatal blow to the Astros, while the Tigers secured their first trip to the American League Championship Series since 2013.
As if that were not enough, it will also be the manager’s first trip to that playoff stage since he led the Astros to the World Series in 2019, before being fired and suspended from baseball for a year following the stolen signs scandal in Houston.
But there is no doubt that he has one of the most prodigious minds in baseball, and the proof is in how he brought together players like Ibanez, sometimes with a more important role and sometimes with a reduced one, to turn around a team that on August 10 was eight games below the .500 mark. “We have good players,” Ibanez said.
“And most importantly, we have this connection, this bond that makes us like a band of brothers who support each other, and we push each other and keep working all the time to achieve the results.”
We’ll see how that connection can help Ibanez, Hinch, and that band of brothers move forward in the postseason, now that they face a tough match against the Guardians in Cleveland in the Division Series.
