DETROIT — For a moment, A.J. Hinch stood out by the pitcher’s mound as delirium engulfed the rest of the playing field.
As his players and his coaches celebrated, Hinch stood removed from the action. He hugged his wife and his daughter. He craned his neck and looked toward the stands, soaking in the revelry of a fanbase that spent 10 years starved of postseason baseball. That drought ended Friday. Hinch managed a team that overcame a more daunting climb than perhaps any other. The trivia has been rattled off numerous times all week: These Tigers and the 1973 Mets are the only teams in history to be eight games under .500 in August and make the playoffs. No one in the Wild-Card Era has come as close to mathematical impossibility and battled back to seal a playoff berth.
Hinch managed the 2017 Astros to a World Series, then served a one-year suspension for his compliance in a monumental sign-stealing scandal. Now he is part of history again. Over four seasons in Detroit, 3 1/2 of them spent managing a losing team, he took a long road back to October. There were many nights when he exited the Tigers’ parking garage and turned his car north toward his suburban Detroit home, unable to stop his mind from racing, his mood simmering after another loss. Asked Friday night how he…
