It's all going downhill in a hurry for the Detroit Tigers, the team that has led the AL Central since the 23rd of April. Entering their all-important clash against the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday, the Tigers had gone 5-13 in the month of September all while the Guardians had gone 16-5. This has helped Cleveland make up a deficit in the division that once stood at 15 games.
Alas, the Tigers are seeing Murphy's Law come into play. On Tuesday, they suffered a 5-2 defeat to the Guardians courtesy of a disastrous sixth inning from Tarik Skubal — giving Cleveland the lead in the AL Central in the process. They may have the same win-loss record (85-72), but the Guardians won the tiebreaker over them as well after that win on Tuesday, sending Detroit spiraling even further into their misery.
At this point, it's gut check time for a Tigers team that's on the verge of a cataclysmic collapse. They had the best record in MLB heading into the All-Star break, so for them to potentially miss out on not just the division crown, but the playoffs entirely, could end up setting this franchise back years.
But it's not over until it's over. The Tigers still have a modicum of control over their destiny; if they win the remaining two games against the Guardians in the series, they will effectively have a two-game lead over the Guardians with three games remaining. And manager AJ Hinch is imploring his guys to continue giving it their all.
“We have to get to tomorrow and get to a better result. Everybody knows. There's no hiding behind anything other than showing up ready to play. Right now, we want just good outcomes. A good outcome would be a complete game for us,” Hinch said, per Evan Petzold of Detroit Free Press.
How did it go wrong so fast for the Tigers?
Seriously: only the Colorado Rockies have been worse than the Tigers have in the month of September. If that is not concerning, then nothing is.
Even Skubal, who's typically a pinpoint pitcher, couldn't get the Tigers back to winning ways in arguably their most important game of their season thus far.
Perhaps the Tigers simply got too complacent and let their feet off the gas pedal way too early. But they are about to learn a hard lesson one way or another. Their character as a team will be tested from now until Game 162.
