Drew Sharp

Detroit Free Press Columnist

The role of emergency replacement admittedly made Gene Lamont a little nervous. He wasn’t completely sure about the instant replay challenge process. But it was only a one-game managerial appointment, thus the Detroit Tigers’ usual bench coach didn’t forget his place.

He stood when he talked with reporters following the Tigers’ 7-2 win over Minnesota. When asked afterwards why he declined taking a seat behind Brad Ausmus’ desk, Lamont said matter-of-factly “it’s not my chair.”

Lamont didn’t know until 90 minutes before the first pitch that Major League Baseball suspended Ausmus for one game for what it deemed “excessive arguing and inappropriate actions” from his highly publicized tirade Monday night against home plate umpire Doug Eddings. An audio recording of Ausmus dropping numerous expletives at Eddings for what the Tigers thought was an unfairly vast strike zone apparently influenced MLB’s decision.

The players didn’t find out until around 6 p.m.

“He covered the plate up with his sweatshirt,” Kinsler said of Ausmus’ suspension. “I don’t know if surprised or stunned are the right words to describe that situation. It was one game. He got to watch the game from the suites so it couldn’t have been that bad.”

A three-game winning streak eases the tensions and lightens the mood. Lamont didn’t unearth any different remedies that somehow eluded Ausmus. It’s a very simple formula. This is a team built for offensively demolishing opponents. If they can’t hit, there’s little hope. The Tigers scored seven runs in the seventh inning, including back-to-back home run from Kinsler and J.D. Martinez.

“Maybe tension increases focus,” said Kinsler. “If that’s the case, let’s hope that the tension continues. Our attitude, our approach hasn’t changed. We’re still working hard. Still playing hard.”

Sharp: Brad Ausmus caught in middle of Detroit Tigers' turmoil

Kinsler credited Cameron Maybin’s timely hitting and bubbly effervescence for giving a listless team a necessary lift. Maybin’s started two games, has four hits, scored two runs and stole two bases.

“He’s definitely helped giving us a spark,” said Lamont.

But even the Tigers’ first three-game winning streak in the last three weeks doesn’t change the overall narrative of this still young season. The Tigers have more serious issues than whether or not they’ve got the right manager right now. There must come an honest evaluation – and perhaps some tough love to ever-generous team owner Mike Ilitch – that the Tigers can no longer mortgage their few quality minor league assets for a World Series pipe dream.

MLB did Ausmus a big favor.

It gave Detroit a new baseball villain.

But it was nonetheless a gutless call.

Fine him. Give him a formal reprimand that he was a bad boy. Send him to bed without his chewing tobacco or sunflower seeds. But suspending Ausmus for displaying the spontaneous fire that his growing critics argue he’s lacked is basically an admission from MLB that it wants its managers masquerading as emotionless cyborgs happily accepting their fate.

Detroit’s never been a city that’s accepted a passionless response, whatever the issue.

It’s one of the reasons why Ausmus’ fallen out of public favor during the team’s early struggles. The impact of highly charged emotional outbursts is greatly overrated in baseball. It remains a game that requires the right amount of time and temperament. Correcting a team’s ills are never as easy as a manager planting his cleats upon somebody’s backside in a furious rage.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t entertaining or even somewhat mentally therapeutic that a manager desperately fighting for his job survival unleashed a torrent that – at least momentarily – brought both a frustrated team and town together in communal spirit.

If anything, there’s been a momentary calming of the rage. Or maybe – thanks to MLB – a redirection of the anger. The rush for an immediate answer to the Tigers’ woes – though not an actual solution – replaced with an uneasy acceptance that those with bullseyes on their backs will probably get a little more time before those in authority render a final verdict.

Three straight wins bought the Tigers a little more time. But let’s not get carried away just yet with assumptions that they’ve turned a corner or that Ausmus’ tirade ignited a fuse for which this team desperately searched over the last two weeks.

Contact Drew Sharp: dsharp@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @drewsharp. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/drew-sharp/. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!