Friday night brought an air of desperation to Fenway Park, with the Red Sox pushing all their chips to the center of the table in hopes of ending the club’s four-year postseason drought.

With their playoff position already secure, Saturday brought a much different vibe.

The Red Sox shifted to postseason preparation mode in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers, sitting multiple regulars while facing a Tigers team that was still fighting for its own playoff life.

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Jahmai Jones’ two-run single in the top of the fifth proved the difference, punching Detroit’s ticket to the playoffs and ensuring the Tigers would go into Game 162 with a chance to claw back the AL Central title from the insurgent Cleveland Guardians on the final day of the regular season.

With only 14 position players and a limited number of pitchers available the Red Sox couldn’t rest all of their starters like an NFL or NBA team might have with everything locked up. But Alex Cora did the best he could, resting Alex Bregman, Trevor Story and Jarren Duran while staying away from the club’s higher-leverage arms.

Even with its so called ‘B’ team, Boston’s bats got going early.

The Red Sox jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second after stringing together three singles, the last coming courtesy of Nick Sogard.

Leadoff hitter David Hamilton nearly kept the rally going with what looked like a bloop single to left, but Tigers shortstop Javier Baez made a sensational diving catch to save a run and end the inning.

From there offense was hard to come by for both clubs. Tigers right-hander Keider Montero retired seven of the next eight Red Sox batters he faced after Sogard’s RBI single, and Red Sox rookie Connelly Early continued his run of dominance.

After allowing a leadoff single to start the game Early went on to retire the next 13 Tigers batters. Detroit snapped that streak with a one-out single in the fifth by Dillon Dingler, but Early drew a pop-up to the plate that Carlos Narvaez hung on to despite colliding with Nathaniel Lowe, who didn’t hear Narvaez call him off.

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Tigers snuck up on the Red Sox and made things interesting.

With two outs Javier Baez lined a softly hit blooper into shallow right that Wilyer Abreu just barely couldn’t reach. That put runners at the corners, and then Early walked No. 9 hitter Parker Meadows to load the bases.

Big mistake.

Jones stepped up and hit a go-ahead two-run single to left, putting Detroit up 2-1. The ball wasn’t hit particularly hard, but it was just deep enough that Tigers third base coach Joey Cora — the Red Sox manager’s older brother — opted for the aggressive send, and Baez beat the throw home to put his team up 2-1.

Early kept Detroit from pulling any further ahead, forcing a flyout from Gleyber Torres to end his outing.

The rookie allowed two runs over five innings with four hits, a walk and seven strikeouts, putting a bow on what has been an impressive run since being promoted on Sept. 9. Through his first four MLB starts Early has posted a 2.32 ERA over 19.1 innings with 29 strikeouts and four walks.

If the Red Sox wind up needing a fourth starter at some point during the playoffs, Early has positioned himself as the top candidate.

Boston’s bullpen shut the door the rest of the way, with Payton Tolle tossing a scoreless sixth and Chris Murphy throwing three shutout innings to keep it a one-run game. But the Red Sox didn’t score again after the second inning, managing only three hits from the third inning onwards.

All three of those hits were singles, and two were immediately followed by fielder’s choices that erased the lead runner.

It could have been a tough day at the office for the Red Sox offense on Sunday too, but with Detroit now safely in the field ace Tarik Skubal most likely won’t take the mound for the finale. Manager A.J. Hinch had already indicated he would only pitch the Cy Young favorite if the Tigers hadn’t already clinched a postseason berth.

But Skubal or not, it won’t make a difference for the Red Sox. They’ll be starting the playoffs on the road in the Wild Card round either way, so what matters most now is staying healthy and setting the table for Game 1 on Tuesday.

Playoff latest

Though a wide range of possibilities remain in play heading into the final day of the regular season, the most likely outcome for Boston is still the No. 5 seed in the American League.

That would set up a date with either the Toronto Blue Jays or the New York Yankees in the AL Wild Card series, and which team the Red Sox face will be determined by who claims the AL East championship on Sunday.

The Blue Jays and Yankees each won on Saturday, ensuring that both teams will go into the final day of the regular season tied atop the division. Toronto owns the tiebreaker over New York, so either a Blue Jays win or a Yankees loss would clinch the franchise’s first AL East title since 2015.

New York would take the division with a win and a Blue Jays loss.

The winner of the AL East will also clinch the league’s top overall seed and a bye to the divisional round. The other will win the top AL Wild Card spot, and that is who the Red Sox will most likely face in their opening round series starting on Tuesday.

Should the Red Sox earn the No. 5 seed and advance, they would then face the AL East champion in the ALDS starting next Saturday.