DETROIT — In another month, we will look back on this time one of two ways: Either as the start of a miraculous run or just another strange mirage in the desert of a 162-game season.
Either way, there’s no denying baseball in Detroit has suddenly become as fun and meaningful as it has been in a long, long time.
After beating the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 on Wednesday, a team thirsting through a 10-year playoff drought has won six in a row and 13 of its past 16 games. Now only 4 1/2 games back from a wild-card spot with 28 games to play, the Detroit Tigers have not been this relevant this late in the year since 2016.
Wednesday night, the moments that made the Tigers’ latest win were numerous, and they epitomized a brand of play that has helped ignite a team that seemed left for dead only a few weeks ago. The Tigers got timely pitching, tough at-bats and a few fortunate breaks as they continued their illogical charge back into the edge of contention.
The events that changed the game were small but powerful. The first came in the second inning, when rookie Jace Jung got down 1-2 against Griffin Canning but proceeded to foul off four pitches en route to a 10-pitch walk.
Spencer Torkelson lurked on the on-deck circle and watched as Canning emptied his arsenal. After the fourth ball, Jung jogged to first and Torkelson entered the batter’s box. Canning, simply searching for a strike, threw a first-pitch, center-cut 93.4 mph fastball. Torkelson — who is 10-for-22 when swinging on 0-0 counts this season — connected and launched a home run over the left-field wall.
“That’s huge,” Torkelson said of Jung’s plate appearance. “If only he could get half a homer for that.”
By the fifth inning, maligned pitcher Kenta Maeda was in the game after a two-inning opener stint from Mason Englert. If the Tigers could win with Englert and Maeda on the mound, perhaps there would be no better proof the baseball gods really are smiling on this team. Maeda, though, dodged trouble in his first two innings, then walked Jo Adell to lead off the fifth. Rogers, being the savvy catcher he is, trotted out toward the mound. He patted the pitcher who hails from Japan on the back and whispered a few words in his ear.
Adell stole second in the inning, but Maeda settled in and dispatched three Angels hitters after the visit from his catcher.
“He claimed he spoke Japanese,” Maeda joked through an interpreter after the game, “but I didn’t understand what he was saying.”
By the seventh inning, right-hander Beau Brieske was on the mound, and the Tigers clung to a narrow 3-2 lead. Adell again walked, and later with two outs in the inning, he broke toward second on a first-pitch slider. The pitch was low and outside to Zach Neto and bounced in front of home plate. Rogers nonetheless picked the ball and fired a dart to Zach McKinstry, who applied the tag to end the inning.
Now having escaped the seventh, Brieske returned to pitch the eighth. With two outs and Anthony Rendon on second, Brieske faced Logan O’Hoppe in one of the game’s biggest moments. A reliever who has battled severe ups and downs this season got in a 1-2 count, then rocked back and fired a 98.6 mph fastball past O’Hoppe’s bat for strike three. It was the fastest pitch Brieske has thrown all year and moved the Angels to 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position for the night.
That pitch might not have happened had Rogers not helped his pitcher end the previous inning.
“Big moments, big play, big throw, big tag,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “Got Beau out of it and saved his pitches for the next inning. We were pretty thin in the bullpen tonight. … Little plays like that are big plays in the game and are also big in the usage game, where Beau could come out completely fresh for the next inning.”
Foley closes the door on our 13th W in the last 16 games 💪
Save energy at home with these tips: https://t.co/sm4zCCuX8E pic.twitter.com/SQfavxQTAP
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 29, 2024
By the ninth inning, Jason Foley slammed the door for his 19th save of the season, and the Tigers celebrated another victory that comes with the tempting impulse to peer closer at the American League standings.
Improbable as it might seem, a measure of success for the 2024 season was always going to be whether the Tigers could play meaningful baseball late into the summer.
Now here, against all odds, the Tigers are doing just that.
“Of course it sinks in,” Torkelson said. “Just got to control the controllable. … I think when teams start tasting themselves and kind of looking towards the future, like, ‘Oh, we’re right there, we’re so close,’ they start to press and they lose the character that got them there. So we just need to stick with what we got. Keep playing hard, keep having fun, keep pulling for one another and good things are gonna happen.”
(Photo of Jake Rogers and Jason Foley: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
