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The Detroit Tigers continue to stun the world as they look to make a Cinderella run in this year's playoffs. In Game 2 of their ALDS matchup against the Cleveland Guardians, the Tigers stole homefield advantage from their division rival, taking a 3-0 win as the series heads to Comerica Park — the first playoff game that Detroit will be hosting since 2014.
During the early 2010s, Tigers fans were spoiled with success, even reaching the World Series in 2012 thanks in large part to the team's deep playoff rotation fronted by Justin Verlander and their hard-hitting lineup led by Miguel Cabrera. But from 2015 to 2023, the Tigers fell off, with the passionate fans of the team clamoring for their golden years of yore.
But now that they're back in the big time, the Tigers are expecting a raucous crowd to turn up at Comerica Park. As the old adage goes, you never realize what you have until it's gone, but now that playoff baseball is back in Detroit, everyone best believe that the crowd will be cheering on their beloved team from the top of their lungs.
“We now have two games at our place. We know it’s going to be electric. We know Detroit has waited a really long time for a playoff game. We’re going to have a couple of them and a chance to take control of this series,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said following their Game 2 win, via ESPN.
Hinch knows that stealing Game 2 from under the Guardians' noses was crucial; Cleveland performed better at home than on the road throughout the course of 2024, and in such a short series, grabbing every advantage could prove to be the difference between moving on to the ALDS and exiting the postseason.
“You come to this environment, on the road, and it’s a five-game series. When you get that emotional win and go back home 1-1, you feel like you got one on their home turf,” Hinch added.
The Tigers seem to be ahead of schedule in their rebuild. But in October, anything can happen, and expect Comerica Park to translate their belief in the team's World Series hopes into a high collective decibel level on Wednesday night.
Tarik Skubal could very well lead the Tigers to the promised land
Baseball is unlike basketball in that a single player, regardless of how good they may be, cannot impact the team's chances of winning as much on their own. But again, playoff baseball is a different beast. With the rest days in between postseason games, a dominant starting pitcher could be the key difference-maker for a team's World Series hopes (see Madison Bumgarner 2014 for reference), and the Tigers have the best starting pitcher (Tarik Skubal) among the remaining postseason teams.
Skubal, once again, was on point for the Tigers during their Game 2 win over the Guardians. He threw seven shutout innings, striking out eight while allowing just three total baserunners (on three hits). The 27-year-old southpaw has been as close to unhittable as a starter can be in the postseason thus far, as he also got the ball rolling for Detroit during their Game 1 win in the Wild Card series against the Houston Astros with six shutout innings.
The Tigers, however, will have to, at the very least, force a Game 5 if they were to give Skubal another opportunity to start. But they would want to avoid that situation altogether as they look to protect homefield on Wednesday and Thursday.
