BOSTON — The Detroit Tigers are in — barely.
The Cleveland Guardians will be remembered for a historic surge, but by making the field, the Tigers may have avoided being remembered for a historic collapse. They came awfully close.
Detroit finished the season 87-75, one win better than last year, and will enter the postseason as the third Wild Card and No. 6 seed for the second straight year.
The Tigers will face AL Central champion Cleveland on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a potential Game 3 on Thursday. The winner of the best-of-three series advances to play second-seeded Seattle in the best-of-five AL Division Series.
“We got through 162 and now we picked up the second season, which is awesome,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch.
“We’ve traveled a long road to get here. But I think we’ve earned it, and I think we’re going to come out with a ton of energy (in Cleveland).”
The Tigers finished tied with the Houston Astros (87-75) but made the playoffs by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Remember that Aug. 19 showdown at Comerica Park between Tarik Skubal and Hunter Brown that ended with a 1-0 Tigers win on a walk-off walk in the 10th inning? That swung the season series and may go down as one of the most consequential Tigers victories of the year.
Of course, no one realized it at the time.
Nor did anyone suspect on July 8, when the Tigers were 59-34 and held a 14-game lead on the Royals, a 14-game lead on the Twins, and a 15.5-game lead on the Guardians, that they could possibly fumble the division.
But they did. The Guardians stormed back to mount the largest comeback in MLB history, although the ultimate effect of that rally on the Tigers was simply a change in venue — playing the Guardians in Cleveland instead of Detroit.
But there were costlier consequences to the Tigers’ ugly finish. As recently as Sept. 18 — just 10 days ago — the Tigers weren’t only leading the division, they were positioned for a top-two seed and a first-round bye. At one point, such status seemed not just realistic but almost certain.
Instead, the Tigers went 3-13 over their final 16 games of the regular season. According to reporter Chris Brown, they are just the second team in MLB history to finish 3-13 and still make the playoffs. The other was the 2000 New York Yankees, who went on to win the World Series.
“There are countless examples of teams that maybe didn’t play their best baseball at the end of the regular season, got a fresh start, lined up their pitching, and got really hot in October,” said Scott Harris, the Tigers’ president of baseball operations.
The Tigers will get that chance starting Tuesday in Cleveland.
“When you show up for spring, which was about six and a half months ago, you’re ready to go and there’s talk of postseason aspirations, and then here we are. So I’m very proud of this group,” Hinch said.
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