Tigers feel September’s burn,
Baseball remains a sport in direct conflict with the modern impulsiveness of swift, decisive verdicts of strength or weakness. Each win — and, more important, each loss — carries a short shelf life of mere hours until a clean slate presents itself. The next game. The next challenge. The next opportunity.
The Detroit Tigers can’t openly acknowledge this, but there’s no such thing as a completely clean slate when the number of remaining games shrinks preciously close to zero and you’re struggling to get your first series win since the first days of September.
It’s wild card or nothing for the Tigers.
The last American League wild-card berth required an annually reduced total of wins in each of the last four seasons. As many as 93 in 2012. As few as 86 last season. It’s unlikely that 86 wins will be enough this season. Not with the heated, three-team battle for the AL East title. Entering the week, the Toronto Blue Jays (8168), sitting in the second wildcard slot, had a two-game edge over their closest pursuers.
Even if Toronto plays slightly above .500 in its final 13 games, the Tigers would need 89 wins to surpass them. That means a 10-3 finish. Cue the trumpeter playing Taps.
“Every loss is frustrating for one reason or another,” says Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander, who pitched seven scoreless innings in a 1-0 Tigers loss to the Cleveland Indians on Saturday.
“I wouldn’t put any more emphasis on this one than any other. But, yeah, this time of year, there’s more pressure to win. You feel it. You know you need to win.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Verlander was the tangible symbol of egregiously poor, shortsighted contractual decisions from team ownership. But if this overall disappointing season established anything, it’s that the sheer will of a superstar cannot be underestimated.
Verlander was once thought of as part of the problem, branded as a once-upon-a-time dominant force, with his best days relegated to memory. But this season — regardless of its ultimate collective outcome — affirms that the 33-year-old is again firmly entrenched as the Tigers ace and an integral part of any competitive resuscitation in 2017.
Remove Verlander’s previous three starts against the Indians (all losses), and his record would be 14-5 with a 2.70 ERA.
The final insult in a season of squandered opportunities? The Tigers couldn’t score a run Saturday against a Cleveland bullpen pressed into 10 innings of emergency duty.
“Did we even get anybody past second?” manager Brad Ausmus asked. Just once. In the series finale, the Tigers beat Cleveland for the second time in 15 meetings this season. But Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer plunked three of their top four players in the lineup: Miguel Cabrera on the left hand, Ian Kinsler in the head and Victor Martinez in the right kneecap.
Kinsler was the most affected and was showing concussion symptoms, Ausmus said.
“(He) is a little shaken,” the manager said.
Before the game, the Indians were already missing starting pitcher Danny Salazar for an indeterminate time because of a strained right forearm.
It was set up perfectly for the Tigers to make a statement. But they couldn’t take advantage.
In fact, “Couldn’t Take Advantage” should be the title of the Tigers’ season-ending video.