The Detroit Tigers clinched a playoff spot for the second consecutive season with a 2- 1 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway park on Saturday afternoon. How they got there didn’t seem to matter to manager AJ Hinch and the players, who seemingly had their division title all but wrapped up before the All Star break, only to lose the division lead as the season drew to a close.

The Tigers held a 14 game lead in their division on July 7-8, and led by as much as 10 games on September 3, only to see the entire lead evaporate. Detroit posted a 7- 17 record in September, the worst ever for a playoff team, and the entire lead evaporated.    It is the largest blown lead in the history of major league baseball.

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They led Cleveland by 15-1/2 games, which is another major league record as the Guardians came all the way back to win the division. That is the flip side of the coin.  As awful as the Tigers played in the final month of the season, they would still easily have won the division without a historic effort by the Guardians, who won 17 of 19 games from September 5- 24 to erase the deficit.

Baseball historians keep records of various types of “collapses”.  There is the lead that a first place team has in their division or league over the second place team- such as the Tigers’ 14 game lead on July 7.  Then, there is the 15-1/2 game lead that Detroit held over Cleveland.  Either way, what happened in the American League Central division in 2025 broke both records.

The 1914 Boston Braves previously held the record for the largest deficit overcome (15 games) to win the pennant (there were no divisions at the time).  The Braves started out 4-18 but then came all the way back and won the World Series.

The previous American League record for a collapse was held by the California Angels in 1995, who held a 11.5 game lead in August, then lost 27 of their final 39 games to finish in a tie with the Seattle Mariners, then losing the tiebreaker, the division, and their playoff spot.

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Another famous collapse was the 1978 Boston Red Sox, who squandered a 10 game lead on July 8, losing to the New York Yankees, resulting in a game 163 tiebreaker game in which Bucky Dent hit a walk off home run that still sits like a bowling ball in the stomachs of Red Sox fans.  That was the largest “comeback- 14 games” by any team to win their division, in the American league, at least until now.

Losing the tiebreaker meant that Boston was out of the playoffs and the Yankees were in.  Same for the Angels and Seattle, and for the Tigers vs Minnesota in 2012. There are no more Game 163 tiebreakers.

The New York Mets had the best record in the major leagues this season, at 45- 24, but never led their division by more than 5.5 games. But for the Mets, the wheels came all the way off the wagon as they finished 83- 79, missing the playoffs.  That collapse is a lot more painful than losing an even bigger lead, but still making the playoffs.

The 2006 Tigers held a 10 game lead on August 7, and 5-1/2 games on September 1st, only to lose the division on the last day of the season to the Minnesota Twins. Detroit lost the last five games of the season, finishing off by being swept by the last place Kansas City Royals who lost 100 games that season. That Detroit team would go on to beat the Yankees and sweep the Oakland A’s, claiming the American league pennant, and moving on to the World Series. Tigers fans can take some hope from that. Once postseason baseball begins, the intensity level washes away everything but the present, and living in the present is exactly what the club needs to do right now to redeem themselves and at least advance past the Wild Card round.

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The 2009 Tigers had a seven game lead as late as September 6, only to lose the entire lead, finishing in a tie with the Twins, and losing a 12 inning tiebreaker game 163 in Minnesota.  That team lost the division and a playoff spot.

So the 2025 Tigers have set a major league record, but one that they’d rather not have in losing a 14 game lead so late in the year. Unlike each of the above teams who squandered double digit leads, they will move on to play in the post season, thanks to an expanded playoff field, even if they didn’t win their division.

The fact remains that no team has ever held a 14 game lead in their division and lost it so late, whether they lost their division, or wound up missing the playoffs.  All is not lost. Far from it. Just ask the Tigers. But they’re going to have to completely reset themselves and get back to the approach and consistency that led them to such a great start to the 2025 season.