Verlander, Miggy powered late-season surge

DETROIT — When Tigers manager Brad Ausmus addressed the clubhouse in the wake of Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the Braves, he had every reason to lament a postseason chase fallen short. He opted to focus on the journey they undertook to get there.

“I think one thing I’ll take away is how well this team did in the second half,” Ausmus said. “We were dead in the water in a lot of people’s minds in July, and the guys played hard, and continued to play hard all the way through the last game. The effort was there. They were busting down the line. Guys were playing every day with aches and pains. Those guys, they wanted to win, and they understood the magnitude of the games the last couple months of the season. For that, I’m real proud of them. They got us back in the race. We were the last American League team standing in the playoff picture, and [on] the last day of the season. …

“It [stinks] that we’re not going to the postseason, because that’s what you start all the work in Spring Training for, and that’s your goal, and we didn’t attain that goal. In that sense, we fell short. But sometimes there’s the bigger picture, and the bigger picture for me was how they went about their business and how their performance carried us nearly to the postseason, to the last game of the season.”

In many ways, it felt like two seasons — a struggling first half that had Ausmus’ future in speculation, and a surging second that caught many by surprise and brought the Tigers back into the race. Detroit went 62-48 from the beginning of June until season’s end. Some of that came from youngsters who emerged out of necessity, and some came from patience exercised on struggling veterans. But it added September excitement to a city that hadn’t felt it since 2014.

The Tigers’ challenge will be to figure out how to avoid the early-season hole. They’ll also need to determine how to beat Cleveland more often; take away their head-to-head matchups, and the Tigers posted the better record at 82-61.

Record: 86-75, second place, American League Central

Defining moment: The Tigers faced a 7-2 deficit after eight innings against the host Rays on June 30, having been held down by Jake Odorizzi and Matt Andriese before erupting for …

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