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And really, this is the silver lining in this whole debacle. If this was something like the 2014 team, a team that was at the end of the line, I’d be in despair for this franchise right now. But I’m not. Even if I am disappointed by what happens this season, I am still excited to be a fan of this franchise—that is assuming they don’t do anything stupid like fire Harris and Hinch, blow up the science departments, and start the whole damn thing all over in a new direction. 😉

Harris isn’t going anywhere either, and Dave Dombrowski is still otherwise gainfully employed. Harris has done an amazing job getting this franchise into a position to be a perennial contender, and well beyond just getting a few decent prospects in the farm system now. It’s really that version of the Tigers he has been building towards, and that version is not here yet, so they’re not about to fire everyone, blow up the franchise, and start over now. This version was never meant to be the pennant or bust team. This version, last year and this, was always playing with house money. Many if not most of these guys won’t even be here in three years.

Hinch doesn’t need to go, and he won’t go. And Jim Leyland is out of the game for good.

Who’s the Evil Prince on this team?

I think you’re right on here. If we can’t ride an emotional comeback like we had today to a win—if we’re gonna end up blowing it in the ninth the way we did—then I don’t know how we can hold on and even go to the playoffs, let alone win the division. YMMV, but me, I am getting myself mentally prepared to miss the playoffs. I suspect they will have me hanging on by my fingernails next Sunday when it can still go either way all the way to the bitter end, but for my own mental health, I need to rip the band-aid off now.

I’m calling it: If Montero gives up a grand slam here, the season’s over. EDIT: Well, that’s good, I guess.

This is a bad, bad time for Will Vest to turn into a pumpkin.

Braves do not have a hit that’s landed anywhere on the field.

Dan is all but calling MLB out for being in the bag for the Braves.

And what if anything did they do for Sue? 😉

Oh man, it is just not gonna be easy, is it? I was just saying I’m nervous about Finnegan coming in, not because I know anything specific, but because it’s the first appearance after an injury, and you never know what you’re gonna get.

TORKBOMB! Looks to me like we’re back on the horse!

Did FD just run a Feiger spot and a Mike Morse spot back to back? If I were either one of those advertisers, I’s be pissed at airing right next to a competitor. I would have thought FD would grant at least pod exclusivity.

That Melton boy has some serious ups! And people will disagree, but plays like that is an indication of increasing energy the team is showing. Something to build on.

Almost! McStinkbomb!

He already threw strikes. Twice.

It's sure looking more and more that way, isn't it? I mean, this game is the most must-win game I can remember in a long time. They lose this one, they might get so freaked out that it will be impossible to turn things around. Hell, this team might be there right now.

Aaaaand here we go ...

They won't want to move to Russia—well, maybe some do, but most won't—but they would certainly be cool with great gobs of nice, white, Christianity-adjacent Russians moving here.

Sorry, Luke, I'm going to have to throw my professional experience trump card on this hand. Most of my career entailed working in media planning in ad agencies for clients who ran primarily on TV. I had close professional contacts with TV stations and networks for the better part of a couple of decades. I promise you they spent almost no time debating whether to run a Charlie Kirk tribute on their air versus actual revenue-generating programing. We can fairly debate whether we think they made that decision to not run the Kirk thing on its air even before announcing they would do so—I personally think they did—but there is no debate about who pressured the network to end the Kimmel show, and you obviously know who that was. As for the advertisers, they usually don't care so much about losing ad time in this specific show or daypart on such and such a specific date, as long as they get generous makegoods that run within their planning window to achieve the point goals of their overall buy with the network. CMRivdogs knows what I'm talking about.

Tork got the most out of his limited rage on that play!

If you have never been in a situation where your direct reports went around you to your boss to work directly with them on a project that cuts you entirely out of it, then you probably will never understand. A.J. did not want the Astros doing this. He showed his displeasure a few times by smashing the monitors that were being used for it. This is well documented—that was detailed in Baseball's investigation into the scandal, and also appears in the documentary I shared. But he couldn't stop his bosses from working directly with his players to make it happen, and despite players' BS statements in the investigation to the contrary, he could never have stopped the players from working with his bosses on it. You can believe A.J. is guilty for being behind the whole thing because he didn't stop it. You can even believe he lied to investigators while under oath and that he's a slimy mother****er who should be fired by the Tigers and banned form baseball for life. It would be your prerogative to believe that, if you did. But that would not comport with the facts in the case as revealed by Baseball in their investigation.

Wait! What just happened? A run scored?

What? No runs given up in the first inning? Do I have the wrong game on?

Because they can’t make any money on it. But they can make money on celebrity family feud reruns.