How Long Will the Detroit Tigers’ Cinderella Story Last?

The beautiful thing about the game of baseball is the sense of magic it can provoke, as season’s are built on narratives and teams swing with momentum. This ebb and flow has never been more evident then what we have witnessed with the Detroit Tigers.

At the trade deadline, the Tigers were sellers, clearly still in the midst of a rebuild and looking to take advantage of their top assets on the market. Jack Flaherty was the main chip dealt, capitalizing on a fantastic one-year signing and turning him into two prospects in Thayron Liranzo and Trey Sweeney.

Liranzo was seen as the prize of the deal, as the 21-year-old catching prospect immediately slot into the Tigers’ top 10. Sweeney on the other hand ended up slotting into the starting lineup, replacing an injured Javy Baez to become the Tigers’ starting shortstop.

Sweeney hasn’t set the world on fire, but he has made steady contributions to a team that got them up and down their roster to close the season.

The Tigers were eight games under .500 on Aug. 10, and were 10 games behind the Kansas City Royals and 11 games behind the Minnesota Twins. By season’s end, the Tigers finished even with the Royals and took the Twins spot as one of the three Wild Card teams.

Across their final 46 games, the Tigers went 33-13, winning 10 of their final 11 games before clinching on Friday, two days before the end of the season.

For a team that everyone had counted out, everything else is gravy at this point for the Tigers. But with the best pitcher in baseball leading their staff, the Tigers can look to get greedy and hope this turns into a deep playoff run.

First Boss: Houston Astros

For a young team going into the playoffs for the first team, you probably could not have given them a more difficult draw than to face off against the Houston Astros.

The Astros are the preeminent dynasty in the American League, having made it to at least the ALCS in each of the last seven seasons. No franchise has had more playoff success then Houston over that span, playing in four World Series.

With that said, the Tigers are riding momentum and they have the perfect manager to help them slay the Goliath that is waiting for them in this Wild Card round.

A.J. Hinch was the manager of the Houston Astros from 2015 through 2019, winning the World Series infamously in 2017. In his first season as the Astros manager back in 2015, Hinch presided over a young team on the cusp and guided them to a 86-76 record and a playoff berth.

Now here is with another 86-76 team, breaking a playoff drought that spanned a decade, just like the Astros did back in 2015.

Hinch’s Astros went up against the Kansas City Royals that year, squaring off against them in the ALDS after upsetting the New York Yankees in the AL Wild Card Game. Houston went on to win two of the first three games against Kansas City, but lost the final two and were eliminated.

In a short series, to think the Tigers can’t pull off an upset here is ignoring what six months of baseball has taught us. Any team can win any three-game series at any time. With great pitching and timely hitting, the Tigers can keep the magic going in Houston.

Pitching Can Carry the Tigers on a Run

Across the Tigers incredible stretch run, their offense definitely ticked up, but it is their pitching that became the best in baseball. Since Aug. 11, the Tigers finished the year with the best ERA in baseball as a team at 2.72.

With a young and athletic team defensively, the Tigers pitchers kept the ball in the yard with the best home run rate in the game, 0.76 HR/9. Soon-to-be AL Cy Young Tarik Skubal led the way, pitching to a 1.85 ERA over his final eight starts. Over his last 12, the Tigers went 9-3.

Including Skubal, the Tigers had eight different pitchers who posted an ERA at 2.00 or lower across that final 46-game span. Hinch has been very creative in how he has split up that workload, with 14 different pitchers registering at least 14 or more innings pitched.

The Tigers have a deep collection of arms that they can deploy throughout the playoffs, and they have the type of ace you want on the mound for a big game.

In the Wild Card round, winning the first game is the most important thing to having the momentum to win the series. In fact, most Wild Card series have ended in two games across the early iteration of this playoff format, as the team who wins Game 1 usually rides the momentum into Game 2.

If the Tigers can win the first game behind a great performance by Tarik Skubal, they can shock the world and upset the Astros this week.