DETROIT — Before Monday’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch acknowledged this much: That plane ride home had been brutally quiet.“You know why?” he said. “Because you got swept coming off a really rough road trip.”The Tigers had left town after a painful three losses against the Chicago White Sox with their hopes and dreams still intact. Then came a series defeat against the Pittsburgh Pirates, with two home run balls against Kenley Jansen in the ninth of the series finale serving as another microcosm of Detroit’s wobbly season. Here was a team unable to shake its bullpen blues, a club that has fought back from the brink only to again succumb to the same old flaws.Then there was another sweep, at the hands of the last-place Kansas Royals. The Tigers flew back in a much different state from how they left.So on the first day of a new homestand, Hinch had to sit at a dais and talk about the messy bigger picture. In a year full of wild momentum swings, it’s too easy to treat every series like a football game, so much riding on each win and loss.“Ten days ago, you’re printing playoff tickets,” Hinch said. “Ten days later, I’m getting asked about end-of-season s—. That’s an amazing job I have, isn’t it?”Troy Melton on his kick-change and curve mechanicsEno SarrisIn between some of the manager’s more clip-worthy quotes, there were more of his usual — and not incorrect — platitudes. For all the emotion and angst around the Tigers, Hinch wants his players to stay locked in on the micro. The first-place Rays loomed in the opposing clubhouse. What happened on the trip does not affect the next game.“We’ve got to hit (Drew) Rasmussen,” he said. “We’ve got to keep Chandler Simpson off the bases. That’s what I want my dudes to worry about today.”Somewhere along the line, there came the quotes and questions about the experience this team has. The 2024 Tigers, that team that overcame 0.2 percent playoff odds to crack the postseason field, have served as a touchstone all year. Even the 2025 Tigers, the team that staved off a monumental late-season collapse, lives on as a fable highlighting the importance of playing the whole schedule.That’s been the common refrain. These players have been through fire and water. Perhaps they can claw back into the fight once again.These days, though, there’s a problem.All that is only halfway true.The Tigers’ lineup Monday featured four rookies: Hao-Yu Lee, Kevin McGonigle, Brett Callahan and Max Clark. With Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter and others still on the injured list, there are only seven players on the active roster who were there the night the 2024 Gritty Tigs celebrated their playoff berth. The Tigers have more players (eight) who are rookies, with scant major-league experience, let alone knowledge of what it takes to pull off a once-in-a-generation comeback.Add those players in with newer faces such as Tyler Kinley — the 35-year-old right-hander the Tigers signed Monday in an attempt to reinforce a bullpen that ranks 11th in ERA but 29th in blown saves and Win Probability Added — and the team resembles less a playoff contender and more a group reshuffling the cards and again building for the future.“Literally, you have guys walk in … they don’t even know where the shower is,” Hinch said. “They don’t even know where the field is, which door goes to the field.”What’s most difficult about this is the notion it was never supposed to be this way. These Tigers once seemed built to win in Tarik Skubal’s final year of team control. When the Tigers signed left-hander Framber Valdez to a $115 million deal just before spring training, it seemed like the official symbol the World Series chase was on.Instead, Valdez has been among the reasons the Tigers have underachieved.In his former life, Valdez was a front-line workhorse who pitched in five straight postseasons. Now, he has a 4.35 ERA on a team that might be down to the last of its nine lives. As of Monday night, the team’s playoff odds were down to 3.5 percent, per FanGraphs. It is four games out of a wild-card spot with six teams to leapfrog.“This team, we’re doing our best to keep fighting,” Valdez said. “We’re going to keep fighting for the rest of the season.”The Tigers, of course, already rallied back from what felt like an insurmountable 16 games under .500 at the end of May. They got as close as one game under and even briefly held the final wild-card spot in a bizarro American League. Now, after Monday’s loss, they have lost nine of 10 and fallen to 61-70 overall.Greene, the three-time All-Star who adds underappreciated punch to the Tigers’ lineup, could return from a hamstring injury relatively soon. He has been sorely missed, and injuries have played an outsized role in how the Tigers got here and why the front office chose to trade Skubal and Casey Mize this month.But Monday, after another defeat, the clubhouse was quiet again. While Valdez finished his work in the training room, only rookies were around at their lockers. McGonigle’s continued strides in the field, answering the bell on a busy night against a Rays team that didn’t swing-and-miss once in 41 tries against Valdez, was the closest there was to a silver lining.“We’re giving it 100 percent,” McGonigle said. “I have all the trust in the guys in this clubhouse. Still very, very confident in us.”Take a step back, and the truth is clear. Individually, many of these young Tigers have played well and provided fun moments. Collectively, they create a roster that lacks experience and offensive prowess.Callahan, a 13th-round pick who was hardly on the radar in spring training, hit fifth in Monday’s game.“We have a lot of young kids who are learning on the fly,” Hinch said at one point.Hinch at his best can be a charming and convincing speaker. But as he spoke about his team’s youth and its experience, about shutting out the noise but also knowing the reality, you have to wonder whether maybe he wasn’t also trying to convince himself.Do the Tigers, here in this new, altered state, really have one more run left in them?“We’re wearing it and feeling it because it sucks to go through this roller-coaster ride when it feels like we could be better,” Hinch said. “That’s why we’re doing the early work. That’s why Riley Greene is busting his tail to get back. … That’s why (Carpenter) got out of his boot, and he’s starting to walk around. We’ve just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other. We’re grinding. The experience will help that we’ve done it before.”