DETROIT – Here’s a haunting question for Detroit Tigers fans on Halloween: How did the 2011-2014 era not produce a World Series ring?
The Washington Nationals won their first World Series title Wednesday, taking Game 7 from the Houston Astros.
Moments after the final out, the national broadcast showed former Tigers starters Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez hugging and dancing, screaming, “We finally did it!”
Yeah, that’s tough for Tigers fans to watch.
The team’s starting rotation from five years ago -- the last time the team made the playoffs -- featured Scherzer, Sanchez, Justin Verlander, David Price and Rick Porcello.
Price and Porcello won the World Series with the Boston Red Sox last year. Two years ago, Verlander won his first title with the Astros.
All five have championships, all within five years of playing in Detroit.
That 2014 team couldn’t even win one playoff game, as it was swept out of the American League Division Series by the Baltimore Orioles.
Scherzer got shelled in Game 1, allowing five runs on seven hits in 7.1 innings. Verlander lasted just five innings in Game 2. Price pitched extremely well in Game 3, but a late home run by Nelson Cruz that snuck over the wall in the right field corner ultimately ended the Tigers’ season.
Sanchez pitched two perfect innings in relief of Verlander in Game 2, but manager Brad Ausmus stunningly chose to remove him in favor of Joba Chamberlain and Joakim Soria in the eighth inning -- a decision that doomed the Tigers and allowed the Orioles to pull off a sweep.
Porcello didn’t pitch in the series.
All five pitchers are champions now, though.
Former Tigers relief pitcher Fernando Rodney also won a title Wednesday night. His last appearance with the Tigers was blowing a save in a Game 163 tiebreaker against the Minnesota Twins, ending the Tigers’ season.