Tigers Reach Playoffs, Make Key Rotation Decision for Wild Card Round
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The Detroit Tigers' walk-off loss to the Boston Red Sox on Friday night at Fenway Park was some good news and bad news.
The bad news, Detroit didn’t move closer to securing the final American League playoff spot. The good news was that later in the night, the Houston Astros lost 4-3 to the Los Angeles Angels to drop the Tigers' Magic Number to one.
The other good news was that the Red Sox clinched their spot in the postseason with the win. Why was that good? Manager Alex Cora rolled out a lineup of mostly backups in a game that had no real implications for Boston.
Detroit took full advantage and rallied for a 2-1 win that clinched the final American League playoff berth. Unlike the Red Sox, the Tigers are still in play for the Division and moved a half-game ahead of the Cleveland Guardians, who play the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.
Detroit Secures Playoff Berth and Can Set Up Wild Card Rotation
Detroit would love to win the Central Division, but after the last month, they are just glad to be in the postseason. Losers of 21 of their last 29 games going into Saturday, the Tigers can rest easy and save ace Tarik Skubal for Tuesday’s Game 1.
Who that opponent will be remains to be seen. There is a good chance that it’s the Guardians, either in Detroit or Cleveland, but it’s not out of the question that they could play the American League East runner-up, either the Toronto Blue Jays or New York Yankees.
However, if Detroit wins on Sunday and Cleveland wins the division, Detroit would hold the tiebreaker over Boston in terms of seeding.
Trailing 1-0 entering the top of the fifth, the Tigers loaded the bases on two singles from Dillion Dingler and Javier Báez before a walk to Parker Meadows with two outs. Jahmai Jones delivered a two-run single for the two runs the pitching staff needed. Detroit's pitching did the rest, allowing seven his, one run, not walking a batter, and striking out 13.
It’s a long 162-game season, and the Tigers certainly struggled down the stretch, but when they had to scratch out a couple of runs and their bullpen was good enough, they were able to avoid a total collapse.
It doesn't matter that it was against a watered-down Red Sox lineup; it got the job done. Even better is that they rest Skubal on Sunday, and if they had to throw him, it would have been tough to enter the Wild Card Round without him.
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Scott Roche has covered both college and professional sports for nearly three decades for various outlets. Scott has covered the MLB, NHL, and college sports and he is someone always looking for a good rumor, no matter which sport it is.