The Tigers are staring at the finish line of this road trip with very little margin left.
Detroit and Minnesota wrap up their three-game set Wednesday night after the Tigers dropped the first two games in lopsided fashion. After that, the club gets a day off before closing out its American League Central swing in Cleveland with a four-game series beginning Friday, and that opener will be a day/night doubleheader.
The slide has been steep. Since August 14, Detroit has lost 14 of 17 and has now dropped six straight series, its longest run without winning a series since an eight-series skid from May 4-31. August itself was a mess at the plate, with the Tigers posting a .228/.309/.356 line, a .665 OPS and an 88 wRC+, the second-worst mark in the American League.
Minnesota has been a particularly rough stop. Detroit is trying to avoid a seven-game losing streak in Minneapolis that dates back to last season, which would be its longest such run there since an eight-game stretch between Sept. 7, 2020, and July 26, 2021. The Tigers have gone winless in Minnesota over an entire season only once in franchise history, when they finished 0-6 in 1988.
There’s another ugly milestone hanging over them, too. Last night’s defeat was Detroit’s 39th loss of the season after leading at some point in the game, tying the Athletics for the third-most in baseball. A year ago, the Tigers had 35 such losses for the entire season, which ranked tied for 15th.
Drew Anderson gets the ball for his eighth start of the season, adding that to 38 relief appearances. That workload puts him in rare company in franchise history. Tyler Holton did it in 2024, and three other left-handers have as well, but Anderson becomes only the second right-handed pitcher in Tigers history to log at least 38 relief appearances and eight starts in the same season, joining Pat Dobson in 1969, when Dobson had 39 relief appearances and 10 starts.
Anderson has handled Minnesota better than any other Detroit pitcher this year. He’s faced 16 Twins hitters and held them to a .154 average. That’s the lowest batting average allowed by any Tigers pitcher against Minnesota this season.
Even Tarik Skubal hasn’t matched that against the Twins. Skubal saw 24 Minnesota hitters and allowed a .364 average with a .533 BABIP. Other Tigers pitchers have had their own problems, with Framber Valdez posting a 5.60 xFIP against Twins hitters, Casey Mize at 6.10 and Ty Madden at 4.59.
The damage has come from all over Minnesota’s lineup, but Ryan Jeffers has done the most with three home runs, 11 RBIs and a 1.286 OPS against Detroit pitching. Kody Clemens, Byron Buxton, Josh Bell and Royce Lewis have each hit at least two homers, and Lewis, Broocks Lee and Luke Keaschall have combined for 20 RBIs.
The bigger picture is even more jarring when you look at where this team has been and where it sits now. On June 1, the Tigers were 22-38 and last in the American League, 11.0 games behind first-place Cleveland in the AL Central and 7.0 games out of the third wild card with nine teams ahead of them.
Then they ripped off a 38-23 stretch over their next 61 games and woke up on August 14 at 60-61, holding sole possession of the AL’s third wild-card spot. Since then, though, they’ve lost 14 of 17, and they wake up Wednesday in fourth place in the AL Central, 10.0 games behind the White Sox and again seven games out of the third wild card, with six teams to climb over.
The offense still isn’t finding the kind of rhythm that carried the Tigers through June and July. Dillon Dingler has gone 91 plate appearances without a home run since August 7, and Spencer Torkelson has gone 106 plate appearances without one since July 31. Hao-Yu Lee has been the most consistent hitter over the last 30 days with a 126 wRC+, but his defensive issues have also cost runs.
Kevin McGonigle leads the team with 17 RBIs over that same stretch, and Brett Callahan’s swing has given the lineup a lift. Still, Detroit keeps burning chances with runners in scoring position. In the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Tigers went 4-for-21 with RISP, a .190 clip, and in their last two blowout losses, 11-1 and 15-2, they went 0-for-10 in those spots.
The Tigers showed real strengths from June into July. None of them are clicking now, and with the calendar turning, the window to steady the season is closing fast.
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It fits the moment for a pitcher who defined so much of the Tigers modern identity and is now retiring after a 21-season career, most of it in Detroit. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred already has recognized Verlander as an honorary All-Star, and the home crowd will now get a final chance to salute him at the ballpark where so many of his biggest memories were made. [Read more 🡒]
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Detroits rotation picture for 2027 is already pointing toward a group built around younger arms, which gives the front office a different kind of decision to make. With that in mind, the Tigers may decide not to re-sign Mize if he reaches free agency, choosing instead to keep the runway open for the pitchers they are trying to develop. It leaves his status as a reunion candidate hanging in a way that would have been hard to picture a few years ago. [Read more 🡒]