DETROIT – Phew, it was starting to look really ugly there for a second.
After how the Detroit Tigers started the last two seasons -- 9-24 and 9-23 for those of you lucky enough to have forgotten -- the first two weeks of this year were starting to look uncomfortably familiar.
Detroit was 2-9, and most of those early losses were uncompetitive. But in Toronto, the team simply found ways to lose late after playing solid for seven-plus innings.
Forget actual stats or historical precedent, it just felt like the Tigers were once again going to be one of those teams that always found a way to lose.
That might still end up being the case! But at the very least, this weekend was a breath of fresh air.
The Tigers got a strong start from Spencer Turnbull, four shutdown innings from the bullpen, and a pair of RBI doubles from unexpected sources to end a six-game losing streak on Thursday. They won that game despite their highest-paid player, Javier Baez, getting benched for a base running blunder.
More on Baez ---> Mistakes happen, but poor play, team struggles have fans fed up with Javier Baez
Base running errors are bound to happen over a 162-game season, but Baez had been so bad on the field that this felt like a fork in the road. It could have been a breaking point.
Instead, it looks like it might have been a wake-up call.
Baez was excellent in the team’s back-to-back extra-inning wins over the San Francisco Giants, going a combined 4-for-8 with two doubles, four RBI, two walks, and two strikeouts.
Before hitting the double that preceded his benching in Toronto, Baez was 4-for-40 with zero extra-base hits on the season. Since then, he’s 5-for-9 with three doubles.
But as good as Baez was against the Giants, he wasn’t the hero either night.
With the Tigers down to their last out on Friday, Nick Maton blasted a three-run walk-off homer against closer Camilo Doval. The very next night, Miguel Cabrera chopped a walk-off single up the middle to give the team a win on Jackie Robinson Day.
Suddenly, the Tigers are 5-9, which is bad, but not nearly as bad as 2-9.
Nobody should be patting the Tigers on the back for only having the third-fewest wins in baseball, but fans need to enjoy these stretches of good baseball when they can.
The best-case scenario for this season is that it feels a bit like 2021, when the Tigers were never really in contention, but they played respectable baseball for most of the summer and offered some hope for the future.
Tigers fans deserve better, but at the very least, the outlook is more promising today than it was a few days ago.
