My Two Cents: Impressive Tigers Starting to Look Like Contenders in AL Central

Thanks to a lights-out bullpen and an All-Star in the making in starter Tarik Skubal, the Detroit Tigers look like a team on the rise. They certainly played the part in a 7-1 road thumping of Tampa Bay, and are now 9-3 on the road.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers are trying something new this April, something they haven't done in a decade. This year, they fly into your town, check in to a hotel, then come over to your ballpark and beat the crap out of you.

It happened again Monday night in the Tigers' series opener with the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Detroit starter Tarik Skubal pitched six innings of three-hit ball, his third scoreless outing in five starts, and their normally docile lineup exploded for 11 hits in a doesn't-get-any-easier-than-this 7-1 win.

The Tigers are now 9-3 on the road this season, and only the Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers — who are each 10-3 away from home — are a tick better. That's a rapid departure for the Tigers, who haven't been in the playoffs in 10 years and have had only one winning season since 2014. That was in 2016, when they won 86 games but still finished eight games out.

They've been a bad road team for a long time, but they are turning it around as their rebuild started to turn the corner a year ago. They were a 41-40 road team a year ago in their 78-win season that was 10 wins better than projected.

Before that, it was some really ugly baseball away from home for six years. (Full disclosure, it wasn't real pretty at home, either.) Look at these road numbers from 2017 through 2022:

• 2017 — 30-51

• 2018 — 26-55

• 2019 — 22-59

• 2020 — 11-20

• 2021 — 35-46

• 2022 — 30-50

That's a road record of 154-281, a whopping 127 games under .500. It's a winning percentage of .354. That's the worst in baseball during that stretch.

So 9-3 on the road sounds really good, doesn't it? And it's got us wondering here in late April. Just how good are the Tigers? And can they make some noise in the there-for-the-taking American League Central?

They have a future All-Star in Skubal, and a bullpen with the best ERA in baseball. They have a whopping 11 pitchers with earned run averages under 3.00. They have eight under 2.08. Who does that? I've been around baseball a lot of years, and that just doesn't happen, that many guys with numbers so low. That's a lot of guys just mowing down hitters night after night.

Skubal only allowed three hits, didn't walk anyone and had nine strikeouts against the Rays, who were 5-1 against the Tigers a year ago. Skubal was dealing, and that's just what he does these days. He's 3-0 on the season with a 1.88 ERA. He's got great command, and it shows.

He's doing exactly what he wants to out there.

"It's more pitch execution," Skubal said. "I've been able to put it where I want a lot, so whether that be the four- or the two-seamer, if I can relentlessly pound guys up and in, it's hard to hit. ... Once you have to start cheating this way, it opens up the outside half of the plate. That's when I have success."

Manager AJ Hinch was impressed, too.

"When he's dominant in the strike zone, he gets them in swing mode," Hinch said. "And when you give him the lead, it gives him a leash to pitch aggressively to the strike zone. He got a ton of strikes. He missed a ton of bats. This is a team that he wanted to attack. The comfortable lead and a couple of good defensive plays behind him gave him some freedom to pitch the way he does, and he was in total command."

Tigers reliever Shelby Miller gave up an eighth-inning homer to spoil the shutout, but it was a mere blip on the radar for this bullpen that's been so good. They have a 1.70 team bullpen ERA even after the homer, and it's the best in baseball.

Need an apt comparison? The Rays, their Monday night opponent, have made the playoffs for five straight seasons, and they've done that on the strength of their pitching, especially in the pen. This year, these two teams are polar opposites.

Look at these numbers: The Tigers have that 1.70 ERA, and the Rays are at 5.27. Tampa Bay's bullpen has allowed a league-worst 55 runs, Detroit 16. Wow, 55-16.

We have no idea if that will keep up, of course. Jason Foley has pitched 10 scoreless innings and has six saves already. Joey Wentz has allowed just one run in 10 1/3 innings, and Alex Lange has been touched just once in 7 1/3 innings. That's reliablilty.

The Tigers are hitting just .223 as a team, but they've shown they can do damage in spurts like they did Monday night. They got homers from Mark Canha and Parker Meadows, plus doubles from Matt Vierling and Kerry Carpenter. Javier Baez, who's been a huge disappointment since coming to the Tigers in 2022, even had a couple of hits.

They showed what's possible, especially coming off a 6-1 win on Sunday against Minnesota when starter Casey Mize got his first win since 2021 and Buddy Kennedy drove in three runs.

They are 13-10 right now, tied for second in the AL Central with surprising Kansas City. Both are 3 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Guardians, who have gotten off to a hot start at 16-6, the best record in baseball.

No disrespect intended to the Guardians, of course, but they are up over their skies so far. The've got some nice players, but that roster doesn't spell .727 baseball. They are the best of the bunch in the division right now, but it's still a division that probably can be won with fewer than 90 victories. It's happened before, and it might happen again.

So why not the Tigers? They might need more starting pitching, especially if Kenta Maeda — he of the 7.64 ERA — can't figure it out.

They also need to hit more, but maybe those bats heat up as the weather gets better, too. It could be said that Monday was their first game not played in cold weather. Outside of chilly home games, they've also been to Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and Minnesota already in April

This is a loose team and, from what's been said since spring training, they kind of like each other, too. They have the Guardians a whopping NINE times in July, when a lot of this might get settled, since I really feel like the AL Central is a two-team race. The Royals are a nice story so far, but I can see them fading. The Twins have some serious issues and the White Sox are the worst team I've ever seen in franchise history, and I've been watching them since the late 1960s. Their 3-19 record isn't unexpected. It's a miracle they've won three, to be honest.

So we'll see about the Tigers. There's a lot to like here, especially going off past history. They are a team on the rise, to be sure, but how high can they go? Can they break that playoff drought?

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they did.