Surprising Surge: Can the Tigers End Their 10-Year Playoff Drought with a Late-Season Wild-Card Push?
There's an upbeat feeling in the Motor City for the first time in a long time as the Detroit Tigers, with 15 games remaining in the 2024 regular season, are unexpectedly making a playoff push. The Tigers held a 56-63 record on August 11th, just over a month ago, and were nine-and-a-half games out of the third and final American League Wild-Card spot. It looked like they were headed for another disappointing season. Given that he is the front-runner to win the AL Cy Young Award at the end of the season and had drawn interest from multiple World Series contenders, the Tigers' decision to hold onto ace starting pitcher Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline has looked to pay off as he has continued to be crucial to the team's postseason push. Can the Tigers now seal a postseason berth and make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2014?
The Tigers are nine games out of first place with two weeks remaining in the regular season, and they are a long shot to win their division as the American League Central division is crowded with teams that have records of .500 or better, including the Guardians, Royals, and Twins. In spite of this, the Tigers have improved since early August and are now in a position to contend for a Wild-Card spot. The Tigers have been on a roll since August 13th, going 19-9 in that time. They have capitalized on a schedule that featured a mix of postseason contenders, including the Yankees, who they took two out of three games from, as well as the White Sox and Rockies, who are looking ahead to next season. Now, prior to action on Friday, the Tigers sit just three-and-a-half games behind the Minnesota Twins, their division rivals, for the last Wild-Card spot.
If the Tigers hope to surprise everyone and make an unexpected postseason run, they will face an extremely difficult schedule in the last two weeks of the season. However, even with the challenging end of the season, the Tigers have a great opportunity to capitalize because they are playing teams who are higher in the standings. The Tigers start this run tonight at home against the Baltimore Orioles, who currently own the top Wild-Card spot. In their next nine games, six of those are against the Orioles. Despite seeming to be world-beaters early in the season, the Orioles have struggled severely since mid-June and have been stuck around .500 ever since. The Tigers have an opportunity to capitalize on the Orioles' issues, which include a laundry list of injuries, but it won't be easy as they face the Orioles' two best-starting pitchers, Corbin Burnes and Zach Eflin, in this weekend's series.
The Tigers will face the Royals, who also want to make the playoffs for the first time in nine years, in between these six games versus the Orioles over the course of the next seven days. If they can maintain their current form over the next nine games and win each series, the Tigers will have an "easy" final week to finish the regular season against the Rays and White Sox. Therefore, the Tigers have given their fans something to get excited about after multiple disappointing seasons in a rebuilding phase. Regardless of how the Tigers end the season and if they can secure a playoff berth, they could look to strengthen their team for 2025 heading into free agency this winter.
