“I kept getting closer to it and closer to it,” he said.

Wilfredo Ledezma, who bailed out the Tigers by retiring Marco Scutaro on a foul pop with the bases loaded to end the eighth with the score 3-all, got the win.

Detroit posted the first ALCS sweep since Oakland chased Boston in 1990. The A’s started off strong in this postseason, sweeping Minnesota in the first round, but manager Ken Macha’s AL West champions could not get key hits against the Tigers.

“I told the players they can’t let this series diminish what they did this year,” Macha said. “I thought it was a tremendous year.

“The guys played their tails off and that’s all you can ask,” he said.

Polanco, whose separated left shoulder in mid-August had him worried that his season was over, delivered three more hits and went 9-for-17 in the series.

“I know we had a shot to make it to the playoffs, and I didn’t know if I was going to play again,” he said. “Like I said before, you don’t have this opportunity every year, and I wanted to be part of the team.”

Jay Payton’s solo homer gave Oakland a 3-0 lead in the fourth.

A night earlier, Thomas said the A’s needed one big inning to get back into the series. Or at least, as Athletics owner Lew Wolff quipped before the game, “We’ve got to figure out how to beat them without getting a run.”

While they scored, the A’s didn’t get quite enough.

“There’s a thing called the Chaos Theory, where you just can’t control certain things,” Athletics outfielder Mark Kotsay said. “We had no control. We did our best. There wasn’t a lack of effort, just a lack of execution.”

Baseball playoffs Recapping the World Series A look back at Red Sox vs. Rockies

Held to a paltry two singles in a 3-0 loss Friday, the A’s came out swinging in Game 4. It worked, as Milton Bradley and Eric Chavez hit RBI doubles in the first inning off Jeremy Bonderman.

As the afternoon turned into night, however, the game tilted to the Tigers.

“The Detroit Tigers are going to the World Series,” Monroe said. “Oh, my God. We’re going to the World Series.”

Notes: Polanco extended his postseason hitting streak to nine games, dating to the 2001 playoff with St. Louis. ... Tigers 1B Sean Casey, who missed most of the series because of a torn calf, said he expects to play in the World Series opener.