DETROIT — I'm calling it. The Tigers are toast.
It's been another rollercoaster of a season for Detroit's baseball team, which two years ago bucked 0.2% odds, and last year blew a 16.5-game lead in the division. Both seasons, the Tigers ended up in the playoffs and actually won a playoff series. Not this year. This year, the rollercoaster has crashed, burned and there's no coming back from that.
The Tigers entered last weekend's home series against the Chicago White Sox with a chance to take over first place in the American League Central with a sweep. They got swept, and that was the beginning of the end.
Since the start of that series, the Tigers have lost seven of eight games, including the first two games of this weekend's series against the Royals in Kansas City. They now are 61-68, seven games under .500 for the first time since mid-July. They are six games back of the White Sox.
And, the worst, they are 2.5 games back of the final wild-card spot, which doesn't seem all that daunting, until you consider this: There are seven teams in the hunt for that final playoff spot, and the Tigers sit seventh in that race. Jumping one, two or even three teams is doable, still with 33 games to go. Jumping six? Yeah, they're toast.
#first #since
It's been another rollercoaster of a season for Detroit's baseball team, which two years ago bucked 0.2% odds, and last year blew a 16.5-game lead in the division. Both seasons, the Tigers ended up in the playoffs and actually won a playoff series. Not this year. This year, the rollercoaster has crashed, burned and there's no coming back from that.
The Tigers entered last weekend's home series against the Chicago White Sox with a chance to take over first place in the American League Central with a sweep. They got swept, and that was the beginning of the end.
Since the start of that series, the Tigers have lost seven of eight games, including the first two games of this weekend's series against the Royals in Kansas City. They now are 61-68, seven games under .500 for the first time since mid-July. They are six games back of the White Sox.
And, the worst, they are 2.5 games back of the final wild-card spot, which doesn't seem all that daunting, until you consider this: There are seven teams in the hunt for that final playoff spot, and the Tigers sit seventh in that race. Jumping one, two or even three teams is doable, still with 33 games to go. Jumping six? Yeah, they're toast.
#first #since
10 days ago
