Tigers' outfielder ends slump as the No. 8 hitter

Steve Gardner | USA TODAY Sports

DETROIT – Detroit Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson was asleep Tuesday night when he was awakened by a text message from hitting coach Lloyd McClendon.

The Tigers were slumping offensively after losing Game 3 of the AL Championship Series to the Boston Red Sox. And Jackson was the worst offender, with just three hits in 33 postseason at-bats.

The text told him he was being dropped out of the leadoff spot to No. 8 in the batting order, but it also brought him a sense of relief.

"I know I've been scuffling this postseason. It's not a secret," Jackson said. "I was happy I was still in there."

Manager Jim Leyland said he knew a change was needed with the Tigers two losses away from elimination and coming off a 1-0 shutout that extended their scoreless streak to 12 innings.

"I didn't want to have something drastic. I didn't want something to be comical," Leyland said. "I thought the biggest thing was to move Jackson out of the leadoff spot and work around that however I felt would be the best way to do it."

The move worked as the Tigers offense awakened in Game 4 for seven runs, more than they had totaled in the first three games of the series combined. And there was Jackson — in the No. 8 spot — in the middle of two big rallies.

"It felt a little different," Jackson conceded.

It should have.

In all 129 games he played during the regular season and the first eight of the postseason, Jackson, 26, was in the leadoff spot. He has started 542 regular-season games in his career – and batted leadoff in 540 of them.

Except for the fact that he's the Tigers' fastest everyday player, Jackson doesn't fit the mold of a typical leadoff man. He doesn't walk very often — 52 times in 614 plate appearances this season. He's prone to striking out, averaging more than 150 in his four major league seasons. And this season he stole eight bases, the lowest total for a full-time leadoff hitter in the American League.

Still, here was a player who finished fifth in the American League with 99 runs scored. And even if he isn't hitting, his defense might be even more important.

"He's one of the best center fielders in the game," outfielder Don Kelly said. "To have him in center field, especially here where it's so spacious and you need somebody that can go get the ball. It's big."

Defensively, Jackson's ability to cover so much ground has been even more in the postseason with converted shortstop Jhonny Peralta seeing significant action in left field.

His greatest contribution in the ALCS involved doing virtually nothing.

In his first at-bat as a No. 8 hitter, Jackson didn't even have to swing, walking on four pitches to plate Detroit's first run.

"After the walk, it definitely made me relax a little more. It was a big situation right there to try to get something done," he said.

The Tigers ended up scoring four more runs in the inning to break the game open early.

In four trips to the plate, he tallied a pair of hits, two RBI and even walked twice. Up to that point Jackson had walked just twice in eight postseason games – and struck out 18 times.

"It was really fun to see A.J. swing the bat like he did tonight," Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias said. "It's really tough to see your teammates struggle, but everybody struggles. It's part of the game we've got to deal with."

Although one good game doesn't necessarily mean a slump is over, any rebound has to start somewhere.

Sometimes it starts near the bottom of the order.

"I think it's something I can build off and hopefully try to continue to do the things that worked for me," he said. "I'll just try to do the same things, keep those same feelings."

Jackson wasn't the only Tigers hitter to benefit from the lineup switch, but his performance stood out.

"The one mission was to try to get Jackson away from it a little bit and let him relax a bit," Leyland said before Game 5. "From that standpoint, the mission was accomplished."