Even if they lose all six, they are still in pretty good position to win the AL Central, but with a couple series wins, and it may be all over but the shouting. If, seven days from now, the Tigers still have a nine-game lead against the Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins, it will take a monumental comeback to catch them.
Twenty-eight years ago, the Yankees caught the Red Sox in the AL East on the final day of the season after being behind by as much as 14 games. That lead was on July 18th, however, not August 7th. After the Red Sox swept the Yankees in early August that year, on August 11th, the lead was still down to only 6 1/2 games.
The Tigers are ahead by nine and nine and a half games over the White Sox and the Twins, respectively. With a couple series wins, they should have at least a ten game lead on each team with only 45 games to play. The Twins will be out of it, with only one series left against Detroit, and the White Sox will be under tremendous pressure to win each of their last seven games against their rivals from Mowtown.
Questions still linger, however. Can Zach Miner repeat the performance he had against Francisco Liriano just a couple of weeks ago, or will the pitcher who gives up over a hit an inning show up? The Twins are a dangerous team, and they cannot be given a lead. Liriano has shown he is human of late, but the smart money has got to go on the Twins in the first game of the series.
Then, can Nate Robertson improve on his last few starts? Yes, he has been getting the wins, but he has been giving up 3-5 runs in each of his last few outings. Keeping the Twins down for the first 4-5 innings will be huge agains a pitcher with Radke's credentials.
Follow that up with Bonderman vs. Santana. If Jeremy Bonderman can forget his eighth inning debacle against the Twins last time out, the Tigers should take this game, but he has to focus and pitch to the best of his ability. If the Tigers take this game, it will likely be the rubber match of the three game set, and the Twins will be all but out of the AL Central race and fighting for a wild card spot.
Then the Tigers travel to Chicago. The White Sox have lost four more games in the standings since the mid-July series at Comerica Park, and will be looking to make it back up over the course of a weekend. By Sunday evening, the Tigers could be anywhere betwen three and fifteen games ahead of them. If it is anywhere from three to five, the Tigers are in serious trouble of not even making the playoffs after 111 games of near perfection. If they can hold it together for another week, they might be a lock.
The last time these two teams met, Chicago crushed Detroit in the first game, and it looked like a sweep was in order. In the second game, it was more of the same until Craig Monroe started his month-long tear with a grand slam home run. Without that hit, the Tigers could have easily dropped the second game and the race would look different today.
In the third game, a pitchers duel, the great hustle that has summed up this season gave the Tigers the win. A takeout at second base on a routine double play ball kept the Tigers hopes alive, and Chris Shelton delivered for his first and last time in a while. His double gave the Tigers the lead, and they held on for a 2-1 victory.
The next six games are going to come down to that hustle, and the Tigers have been doing it all season, from day one to plays like Polanco sprinting down the line to give Pudge a chance to win the game in the bottom of the 9th against Cleveland Saturday. The only team that will beat the Tigers at this point is themselves, because not even a team of Pete Roses can out-hustle them at this point. And you can bet on that.
