CLEVELAND — (AP) — Detroit manager A.J. Hinch knows the Tigers' 4-2 win over Cleveland Thursday night counts as only one game in the standings.
However, the victory gave the Tigers plenty of momentum going into the final series of the regular season.
“Everybody needs to see a little bit of positivity in the game,” Hinch said. “I think everybody takes a collective breath and say, ‘here we go,’ We know these games matter the most. Even though they count the same, they don’t feel the same because of where we’re at.”
The Tigers and Guardians are both 86-73 and tied atop the American League's Central Division with three games remaining. The last time the division was remotely close after 159 games was in 2014, when the Tigers had a two-game lead on the Kansas City Royals.
The last time the AL Central was tied at this point was 2006 when the Tigers and Minnesota Twins had 95-64 records.
The Tigers snapped an eight-game losing streak and go into Boston in control of their own destiny. Despite having a 9 1/2 game lead in the division on the morning of Sept. 1, Hinch has tried to keep things focused on the Tigers still having control of a playoff spot despite going 6-15 in September.
Detroit though knows what it is like to be left for dead and all of a sudden get hot at the end to make the postseason. Last season, the Tigers were 55-63 before going 31-13 the remainder of the season to get a wild-card spot.
“This is a weird sport we play. Anything can happen. We’ve seen it with our own eyes. That's why you have to play all 162 games,” Riley Greene said.
The Tigers swept the Red Sox in a three-game series in Detroit earlier this season. Boston took two of three in its series against Toronto, but lost 6-1 on Thursday.
“We know if we win as many games we can, we’re going to be just fine. We have a good team. We need to play like it,” Hinch said. “Tonight was a good example of what we can bring to the table. Fenway (Park) is going to be an incredibly fun place to play. They are trying to get to the finish line as well, so I expect it to be tough, hard fought games.”
Even though the Guardians were unable to sweep the Tigers for the second time in less than two weeks, they still got what they wanted by taking two out of three games.
“We’re in first place, aren’t we? That sounds good to me,” Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges said. “We talk about winning series. We did that. If we win every series moving forward, we win the world championship.”
The Guardians — who are 18-6 in September — play a Texas Rangers squad that has dropped 9 of 10. However, Texas swept the Guardians in a three-game weekend series last month. The Rangers though will be without their key stars.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way our guys played these last three days," manager Stephen Vogt said. "We played a great series. Our goal is to win series. We talk about it all year long and we won the series, so we got to do that one more time. We got to win a series this weekend and see what happens.”
If Cleveland and Detroit end up tied after Sunday’s games, the Guardians would win the AL Central due to an 8-5 advantage in the season series and host a Wild Card Series starting Tuesday.
Cleveland and Detroit also have a one-game lead on Houston for the final wild-card spot.
The Guardians and Tigers also hold the tiebreak over the Astros. Both teams have a magic number of two to clinch a postseason spot.
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