Major League Baseball’s expanded playoffs were supposed to give more organizations and fan bases hope.
Now in its third season, the 12-team MLB playoff field has inadvertently created a slingshot, capable of launching an entire metropolis into a frenzy.
The Detroit Tigers are the latest team out to test just how far they can soar when the No. 6 seed takes on the No. 2-seed Cleveland Guardians in the American League Division Series starting Saturday.
Like a matchup of 12-5 seeds in the NCAA basketball tournament, a No. 6 and last seed in the MLB playoffs is not the handicap it would seem.
In 2022, the Philadelphia Phillies used the first 12-pack format to grab the last seed in the National League. Their inspired late-season run led them all the way to the World Series, where they fell in six games to the Houston Astros.
Last year’s playoffs took things a step further when the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks destroyed the entire regular season of narratives by meeting in the World Series.
The Diamondbacks made it two No. 6 NL seeds in two seasons to make the title round in two expanded playoffs, only to lose to the No. 5 seed in the American League.
This season, the Tigers are showing that a hot month and a few extra well-played weeks can mask prior issues, as long as it’s the final six weeks.
The Tigers not only went an impressive 17-8 in September, they were an MLB-best 31-13 from Aug. 11 until the end of the regular season. They led MLB with a 2.72 staff ERA over the same time span, and nobody had a better run differential than Detroit’s plus-62 mark from that date.
Charging to the playoff start line in a full sprint, the Tigers roared past the host Houston Astros with a two-game sweep this week. Now comes a meeting with the AL Central champion Guardians, who the Tigers trailed by 6 1/2 games in the regular season.
In the 13-game season series between the teams, the Guardians held a slim 7-6 advantage.
But Cleveland has never seen this version of Detroit. The teams last faced each other on July 30 to end a stretch when they faced each other six times in nine days. The Guardians went 4-2 in that run.
July 30 is also the day the Tigers seemed to be looking toward next year when they traded right-handed starter Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They ended up getting shortstop Trey Sweeney as part of their return package, and he made his MLB debut Aug. 16 while making valuable contributions down the stretch.
Tarik Skubal has led the pitching staff as the presumptive AL Cy Young Award winner, while a versatile bullpen has been a difference-maker. The offense is getting key contributions from players like Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows, Riley Greene, Jake Rogers, Andy Ibanez and Colt Keith. Sweeney, Meadows and Keith are rookies.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch referred to his plan to use seven pitchers in Wednesday’s clincher against the Astros as “chaos.”
Skubal and the kitchen sink does not seem to be the most stable plan moving forward, but the Tigers could be ready to put right-hander Kenta Maeda back on the playoff roster.
“Who knows what we’re going to do,” Hinch said. “One of our things that we pride ourselves in is that we’re unpredictable and our players buy into that leading to success. When you find some success, you win a couple series. You perform on the highest stage. That strengthens that belief that we’re going to try to chase every strength we can.”
The Tigers don’t crush home runs like the Yankees, who led baseball with 237, or even the Guardians, who had 185. They had just 162 to finish 24th in MLB and behind clubs like the Los Angeles Angels (165), Cincinnati Reds (174) and Oakland Athletics (196).
Instead, they use a relentless approach in the box, an aggressive base running, and a lack of fear that belies their experience level. There isn’t much star power outside of Skubal, and yet it works since teams have not been able to use their aggressive style against them.
“The mental grind of the season and putting it all together with this group, for this team, and not just being satisfied getting to the playoffs… I’m forever grateful being a Detroit Tiger,” Hinch said.
