DETROIT -- Tigers players were making plans for October as summer wound down. They didn¡¯t necessarily involve the postseason.

After trading away veterans at the Deadline and sitting under .500, it was only human nature to look ahead. It¡¯s what the Tigers had done for years since their last postseason berth in 2014.

¡°I got a wedding to go to, one of my friend¡¯s weddings,¡± reliever Beau Brieske said. ¡°He already reached out and said, ¡®Hey, I understand.'¡±

He wasn¡¯t alone. Rookie Justyn-Henry Malloy and his girlfriend had plans to visit the Dominican Republic.

¡°When we were starting to get into that discussion of a potential playoff, I told my girlfriend, ¡®I¡¯m just giving you a heads-up early that I¡¯m hoping we cancel our vacation,¡¯¡± Malloy said Friday afternoon before the 4-1 win over the White Sox that clinched their American League Wild Card spot.

¡°I bet you most guys had plans.¡±

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Kerry Carpenter and his wife, expecting their first child, had plans for doctor¡¯s appointments and preparing for a family. Some of that, obviously, is still happening. Many players had family plans.

Even those who didn¡¯t have grand plans were admittedly looking ahead.

¡°I bet a decent group of guys were planning on going to that Monday Night Football game with the Lions here,¡± said Tarik Skubal, noting the Lions-Seahawks game at Ford Field the night after the Tigers¡¯ regular-season finale. ¡°I bet a bunch of guys were planning on doing that.

¡°Things have changed. And that's awesome. That's what we wanted anyways.¡±

It¡¯s what they all wanted, even if they didn¡¯t envision it happening like this.

In early August, as Riley Greene was nearing a return from the hamstring injury that forced him to the injured list, he talked about returning in time to help the Tigers make a playoff run. The Tigers were eight games under .500 at the time and had a 0.2 percent chance at a postseason spot according to Fangraphs.

¡°What if we win out,¡± Greene said, straight-faced.

They didn¡¯t win out, but they¡¯re 31-11 since. It looked like clairvoyance, but he said later he was just reading a sign he had seen from a fan.

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The seven-week run that sent the Tigers to their first postseason berth in 10 years was so sudden that even the most optimistic of players would¡¯ve had a hard time forecasting. They¡¯ve always believed in each other, believed they were good enough. They didn¡¯t necessarily believe they had enough games left.

Instead of worrying about that, they just focused on each game, each day. It was the point manager A.J. Hinch emphasized.

They had a two-man rotation at the time in Skubal and Keider Montero. The other games were a bevy of openers and bulk pitchers, from castoffs Bryan Sammons and Brenan Hanifee to prospects Brant Hurter and Ty Madden.

¡°I¡¯ve been managing like it¡¯s Game 7 for two months,¡± Hinch said Friday afternoon.

While rookies Dillon Dingler, Jace Jung and just-acquired Trey Sweeney came up, Greene, Carpenter, Spencer Torkelson and Parker Meadows came back. The Tigers split a West Coast trip to Seattle and San Francisco, then swept the NL West-contending Mariners at Comerica Park.

After being shut down by Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, the Tigers bounced back with back-to-back wins over the Bronx Bombers, culminating in Meadows¡¯ game-winning single at the Little League Classic.

¡°I think the walk-off at the Little League Classic was a big moment,¡± Hinch said. ¡°We won a series from one of the best teams in the league.¡±

The wins kept coming -- a 5-2 road trip in Chicago, a 4-2 homestand against the Angels and Red Sox to get back over .500.

They were a strike away from getting swept in San Diego when Meadows hit a go-ahead grand slam. They took two of three in Oakland, beat the Rockies, beat the Orioles at Comerica Park, swept the Royals, then beat the O¡¯s in Baltimore.

¡°Didn¡¯t even envision that we would be in this spot as a team,¡± Brieske said. ¡°We really just started playing well, and then started playing really well, and then it continued.¡±

What began as a good stretch -- Hinch refuses to call it a stretch because stretches end -- became 31-11.

Now, here they are. And as Meadows and right fielder Wenceel P¨¦rez converged and collided on Andrew Vaughn¡¯s fly ball for Friday¡¯s final out, it seemed a fitting culmination of the run. P¨¦rez held onto the ball on the ground while Meadows raised his arms in celebration. And a team that has focused on what¡¯s immediately in front of them for nearly two months could finally look up and appreciate what they¡¯ve done.

¡°It¡¯s kind of picture perfect on how to punch our ticket to October, with an imperfect play,¡± Hinch said, ¡°with guys literally trying to do everything they can to catch it. One of them does.

¡°We¡¯ll go over the film and it¡¯ll give us something to poke fun at, but that sense of accomplishment is second to none.¡±