For the first time in many a year, the Detroit Tigers found themselves in a playoff run in 2024, playing meaningful games into September. While they ultimately lost to Cleveland in the American League Division Series, the run they went on was one heck of a fun roller-coaster. It provided weary fans a welcome respite from the mediocrity to which they’d become sadly accustomed over the last decade.
We’ll take a look back at that magical September, where the odds of the Tigers making the playoffs went from “laughably miniscule” to “not insignificant” to “could they actually pull this off?” to “oh my goodness let’s pop some champagne.” Today in Part 1 we’ll set up September, look at how mind-bogglingly far they had to rise to even be part of the playoff conversation, and relive the stretch in which Tiger fans began to believe it could actually happen.
The Dog Days of Summer
It wasn’t looking good for the Detroit Tigers in July, for many reasons.
After a decent start to the season — at the end of April they split a doubleheader at home with the Cardinals to finish the month with a 17-13 record — they were five games under .500 for the month of May and seven games under for June.
The lowest point of the season was on July 4: a (mercifully) rain-shortened 12-3 loss in Minneapolis against the Twins dropped the Tigers to 39-48.
The Twins play a pretty big role in this whole story, though.
The Tigers went into the All-Star Break on a bit of a high, walking-off the Dodgers on consecutive days… but near the end of the month the team traded away backup catcher Carson Kelly, infielder/outfielder Mark Canha, lefty relief pitcher Andrew Chafin, and number-two starter Jack Flaherty, all during a five-game losing streak.
At that point the pitching rotation was Tarik Skubal (solid), Keider Montero (rookie), and three days of, as manager AJ Hinch later described, “Pitching Chaos”: bullpen starts, plenty of mixing-and-matching of relievers, and multi-inning relief outings as a matter of course. Somehow, though, it… um… kinda worked to perfection?
Famously, though, FanGraphs put the Tigers playoff odds at 0.2% on August 11, as they were 13 ½ games out of first in the American League Central at that point.
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Not only that, they were nine games back of the Royals for the third AL Wild Card spot, so to say they were a giant longshot to see October is a pretty big understatement.
And then they swept the Mariners and took two-of-three from the Yankees at home. This was notable for Will Vest tumbling down the cardboard sled hill at the Little League Classic and somehow transforming into Super Will Vest the whole rest of the season, but also the Tigers rallying and then walking off the Yankees in the tenth inning. A certain mojo was developing…so they moved on to Chicago and won five out of seven games on both sides of town combined.
They returned to Comerica Park and took two out of three against the Angels and did the same against the Red Sox just before Labour Day to climb two games above .500 (at 70-68)… at which point FanGraphs’ playoff odds were now up to a dizzying 7.4%. Lloyd Christmas has some thoughts about longshots, though:
Go West: San Diego and Oakland
A very unusual Monday-Wednesday-Thursday series in San Diego — Monday was originally an off-day, but the Padres wanted to move the Tuesday game to take advantage of the Labour Day holiday — didn’t go exceptionally well, with the Padres winning the first two games of the series.
The second of those losses was a 6-5 walk-off in ten innings. That one stung because the Tigers had a 5-0 lead in the fourth, but San Diego touched Montero for five runs between the fourth and fifth. and nobody scored until Fernando Tatis Jr. singled-in Jackson Merrill, the Manfred Man, with two outs.
The Tigers salvaged the series finale, winning 4-3 on Parker Meadows’ two-out, full-count, ninth-inning, opposite-field grand slam which caused many a Tiger fan to yelp with delight. If the Tigers had gone on to win the World Series this home run would be remembered as one of the greatest in Tigers regular season history. Instead, it was just pretty awesome.
Was it actually possible? Could there be October baseball in Detroit?
The next day the Detroiters went up the coast for their last-ever trip to Oakland, and dropped the series opener in 13 innings after both teams scored once in the tenth, twice in the eleventh and once in the twelfth: Seth Brown poked one down the right-field line for the RBI and the victory.
I know I’m not alone in thinking this, and I’ll just say it right here: the A’s home-white uniforms are one of the best-looking of all time. Green and gold are a great combination, especially with those high socks that some of the guys are wearing, and this concludes Fashion Corner With JT for today.
All polyester-based analysis aside, the Cardiac Cats came back the next day to win 2-1 in classic “2024 Detroit Tigers” fashion. Check this out:
- Brenan Hanifee opened and faced three batters, retiring two.
- Brant Hurter — who finished 10th in WAR (B-R version) on the team — took over and pitched 5 ⅓ one-run innings.
- Sean Guenther (yet another underrated, under-the-radar bullpen guy who did a sensational job) went 1 ⅓ innings, handing things over to Jason Foley for the last two outs and the save.
- In the top of the seventh the bats manufactured just enough runs to win the game: a single, fielder’s choice and walk loaded the bases, and a groundout and a sacrifice fly did the trick and Detroit won 2-1.
If there’s a more-stereotypical ‘24 Tigers victory out there, I’d like to see it. Also, I’m not sure I’ve ever included a Hurter highlight in an article, so here goes:
The next game was tight until it wasn’t, with Detroit scoring six in the eighth to easily win 9-1 and nab the series victory. After the finale in Oakland on September 8, the Tigers were 8 ½ back of Cleveland in the AL Central… but were a cool 3 ½ games behind the Twins for the final AL Wild Card. (Minnesota was in second place in the Central, 2 ½ behind Cleveland, in the last week of August.)
Mama, I’m Coming Home: Rockies and Orioles
After cramming themselves into coach on the red-eye eastward from Oakland (they travel just like us, right?), the Tigers had an off-day to do the laundry, mow the lawn and finally fix the short leg of that chair in the kitchen.
All that rest did Montero a world of good as he hurled a three-hit shutout (of the Maddux variety) against the Rockies to open the three-game weekday series as the Tigers breezed to a 11-0 victory.
That curveball to finish the game? Chef’s kiss, right there. Gorgeous.
The next game of the series saw the Tigers jump all over Tanner Gordon for six first-inning runs and cruise to a 7-4 victory, bumping their playoff chances into the double-digits and moving them to 3 games behind Minnesota. They couldn’t manage to secure a sweep the following afternoon, though: the game was knotted at 2’s going into the ninth, and Jason Foley got death-by-papercutted with a single, passed ball, bloop double and a sacrifice fly to ultimately send the Tigers to a 4-2 loss.
The Rockies then left town, the Orioles took their place, and the Tigers beat ‘em in the first game of a highly-anticipated series 1-0. The only run came on the third pitch of the bottom of the first inning, with Kerry Carpenter smacking a no-doubter to right:
Beau Brieske opened, Hurter went 5 ⅔ innings, and Holton closed out the shutout… but this was an unusual (yet masterful) pitching performance. You see, Holton allowed a two-out triple to Gunnar Henderson, putting the tying run on third — but that was the first hit the Tigers had allowed all game. Heck, it was only Baltimore’s second baserunner of the contest, the only other being a leadoff walk issued by Hurter in the eighth. Holton ended the drama with a swinging strikeout of Anthony Santander, to the relief of many. Pitching chaos!!!
Playoff odds: 11.5%. Games behind Minnesota: 2 ½. Butts clenched after the Henderson triple: many.
The next night Brieske opened again, with Ty Madden being the “bulk guy” going 3 ⅔. He was ultimately tagged with the loss, as the O’s went ahead with him on the mound and led the rest of the way. The Tigers tried to come back in the ninth, originally down 4-0: Meadows smacked a leadoff solo shot and with two outs Spencer Torkelson singled home Colt Keith, but Zach McKinstry grounded out to first with runners on the corners to end the game.
The following afternoon the Tigers got back to their winning ways with a 4-2 win, as Riley Greene found the outfield seats twice, the second off Old Friend™ Gregory Soto.
Montero threw five shutout innings, and despite a shaky Will Vest outing — a rarity in 2024, for sure — Foley got a four-out save to seal the deal. But since the Twins beat the Reds 9-2, Detroit didn’t gain any ground before leaving on another two-city road trip. Indeed, their playoff odds slipped to 9.9% after the dust settled on September 15th.
That’s a good place to hit the pause button for now. In Part 2 of this series we’ll look at the final push towards the playoffs, which ultimately ended with the Tigers seeing the postseason for the first time in a decade.