DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers just keep winning, so their playoff chances just keep rising. Their odds took a huge jump over the last 24 hours, as every single meaningful game went their way.
Heading into this weekend’s series against the playoff-bound Baltimore Orioles, the Tigers were tied with the Minnesota Twins for the final wild card spot, but since they don’t own the tiebreaker, they were technically on the outside looking in.
Before Friday night’s game, the Tigers had a 42.4% chance to make the postseason, according to Fangraphs.
When they lost the first game of the series Friday and the Twins beat the Red Sox in extra innings, Detroit’s playoff odds plummeted to 26.9%.
Even though the Twins and Red Sox were rained out Saturday, the Tigers improved their odds to 38.2% with a win in Game 2.
Sunday was when the Tigers made their biggest move, though. Not only did they beat the Orioles to win the series, but the Twins lost to the Red Sox twice.
On top of that, both the Royals (who started the day one game ahead of the Tigers) and the Mariners (who were one game back) lost, which gave the Tigers a little more insurance.
When the dust settled, the Tigers left Baltimore with a 69.4% chance to make the playoffs -- tied with the Royals and 14.9% better than the Twins.
It’s hard to believe the Tigers have gone from virtually dead (10 games out of the wild card at one point) to having a better than two-thirds chance to make the playoffs. And there are only six games remaining.
This has been an incredibly fun month of baseball, and one of the most improbable runs we’ve seen in the history of Detroit sports.
Now we’ll see if the Tigers can come home and clinch for the first time in a decade.
