Here come the Detroit Tigers! After languishing below .500 for much of the summer, the Tigers have won 20 of their last 30 games. They have taken care of business against bad teams and just swept the Kansas City Royals in their house, one of which was a comeback victory.
The Tigers were sellers at the trade deadline, notably sending starting pitcher Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers and relief pitcher Andrew Chafin to the Texas Rangers. Their postseason hopes were grim. Now, they’re just half a game out of a Wild Card spot. Detroit hasn’t seen postseason baseball since 2014 but it can taste it now.
Manager A.J. Hinch's team is riding its newfound confidence to success as the postseason race starts to heat up, according to Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic.
“First off, we believe,” Hinch said, via The Athletic. “And secondly, we come every day to try to win the game, and we are winning a lot. It’s fun to watch these guys learn and grow and compete their ass off to the end of the game.”
Tigers making late postseason push.
Tarik Skubal has continued to be the best starting pitcher in the American League, sporting a 2.48 ERA with an MLB-leading 221 strikeouts. Rookie Keider Montero has been pretty solid in his first six career starts, recently throwing a complete game shutout. Tyler Holton has been nails out of the bullpen, allowing just one (unearned) run in his last eight appearances/11.2 innings. Jason Foley and Will Vest have also been good options out of the ‘pen.
Pitching is what got the Tigers to this point but they couldn’t have done it without help at the plate. Riley Greene has continued hitting well in his first All-Star season. Spencer Torkelson hasn’t been great in September but went off in August as the Tigers started picking up momentum, posting a .945 OPS in 14 games/57 plate appearances in the second half of the month. Contributions from Kerry Carpenter, Zach McKinstry, Parker Meadows, Matt Viering and Colt Keith have also been key.
The Tigers don’t have much more room for error and are about to face the Baltimore Orioles on the road. They have made a lot of great progress but still have plenty more to make to punch their postseason ticket.
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