BOSTON — They danced, they sang, they sprayed champagne, and they finally got to revel in some oxygen. There was the September losing streak and the blown lead in the American League Central and history – the worst kind – piling up with every whiff at the plate.

It was heavy, getting heavier, and was starting to wear the Detroit Tigers out. Or down.

“We’ve been carrying a lot with us over the last month, month-plus,” manager A.J. Hinch said.

He can reveal that now. Say that now. He did say that now, as he huddled with reporters in a cove a few feet off the visitors' clubhouse at Fenway Park in the early evening Saturday, Sept. 27, after the Tigers clinched a postseason berth for the second season in a row.

His team whooped and hollered and hugged just around the corner from him,

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