Should Detroit Tigers worry about Cleveland Guardians in AL Central?
On “Days of Roar,” Cleveland Guardians beat writer Paul Hoynes checks in about the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central race with two weeks remaining.
The Detroit Tigers are ready to celebrate.
They’re just not winning enough games.
The Tigers could’ve celebrated an American League Central championship with a three-game sweep of their series against the Cleveland Guardians at Comerica Park, but the Tigers lost the opener, 7-5, to the Guardians on Tuesday, Sept. 16. There won’t be any celebration of Detroit’s first AL Central crown since 2014 until Friday night at the earliest.
“You want to clinch at home,” left-hander Tarik Skubal said before Tuesday’s loss. “The only bad part is celebrating in your own clubhouse because it tends to get a little destroyed, but we can’t worry about winning the division on Thursday if we don’t win today’s game, so we got to put on a good performance today and win.”
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After Tuesday’s loss, the Tigers (85-66) entered Wednesday with a 5½-game lead over the Guardians in the AL Central with 11 games remaining, including five games against the Guardians. (Back on July 8, the Tigers paced the AL Central by 14 games and had a 15½-game lead over the Guardians.)
There’s good news and bad news.
The Tigers still own a 99.1% chance to make the postseason and a 97.5% chance to win the AL Central, according to FanGraphs, but they’re down to a 62.9% chance of being one of the top two AL division winners rewarded with a bye to the best-of-five ALDS. The AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays are firmly in first place, so if the AL Central-leading Tigers can’t fend off the AL West-leading Seattle Mariners for second place, then they’ll be forced into a best-of-three wild-card series. The Tigers entered Wednesday with a two-game lead on the Mariners, but the Mariners own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
It doesn’t help that the Tigers keep losing games.
This team is stumbling to the finish line.
“It’s a lot different, but you want to stay like the hunter,” first baseman Spencer Torkelson said before Tuesday’s loss. “You want to keep that mentality of that prey drive. We’re still chasing something. We can’t get complacent. We have that hunger, but it’s harder to find it every single day, which is natural, but we’ve got to turn it on and find that hunger again.”
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Since June 3, the Tigers have a 45-45 record. More telling, the Tigers are 26-28 since the All-Star break — and, more recently, just 7-13.
The teams chasing them are thriving.
Since July 6, when they ended a 10-game losing streak, the Guardians are 39-23, including wins in 10 of their past 11. The Mariners are 25-16 since the start of August, and took a 10-game winning streak into Wednesday’s matchup with the Kansas City Royals.
“You definitely have to stay level,” Torkelson said, “but you have to have some intensity. We want to stay locked in and win every pitch, but that’s been the mantra all year.”
In 2024, the Tigers put together an improbable 31-11 run to clinch the third and final wild-card spot, all while the Minnesota Twins had an embarrassing downfall.
In 2025, the Tigers are trying not to fall apart.
The pressure is on.
Unless you ask the Tigers.
“I don’t even know that I would define it as pressure,” manager A.J. Hinch said after Tuesday’s loss, in which right-handed reliever Will Vest surrendered four runs in the top of the 10th inning. “I just think it’s incredible coming to the ballpark with his opportunity. If you see it as pressure, I bet it feels daunting.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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