With elimination looming, Detroit must sweep their final eight games and bank on outside help to complete an improbable late-season surge toward the American League playoffs.
Eight games remain.
Despite an improbable, perhaps even impossible, come-from-behind victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night, the Detroit Tigers still find themselves 5.0 games behind Chicago for the final American League Wild Card spot.
But Friday’s win did accomplish something important: It kept the dreaded “E” from appearing next to Detroit’s name in the standings.
As long as that elimination mark remains absent, there is still a chance.
And after a season that has seemingly been dead multiple times, the Tigers have somehow continued to find ways to keep themselves alive.
Now, they have to win out.
It Starts With Chicago
Detroit has two games remaining against the White Sox, and those games are essentially must-wins.
If the Tigers can take both, they would pull within three games of Chicago with six games remaining, assuming the teams around them don't make up ground in the standings.
But none of that matters until Detroit actually wins the next two.
After that, the Tigers would head into a three-game series against one of the National League's struggling teams: the Washington Nationals.
Washington enters the weekend at 72-82 and has already been eliminated from playoff contention.
The Nationals are 5-5 over their last 10 games and own a +11 run differential on the season.
Detroit, meanwhile, sits at 73-81 despite owning a +77 run differential.
That discrepancy has been one of the strangest parts of the Tigers' season.
Still, none of the previous 154 games matter now.
Detroit has to approach every remaining game as if it were Game 7.
Then Comes Pittsburgh
If the Tigers can somehow win their next two against Chicago and sweep the Nationals, they would enter the final series of the regular season needing three more victories.
Fortunately for Detroit, those final three games would come at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Pittsburgh has already been eliminated from the National League playoff picture and currently sits at .500, with a 6-4 record over its last 10 games and a +27 run differential.
The Pirates have had their own disappointing season, including an underwhelming year from ace Paul Skenes.
But none of that means Detroit can afford to overlook them.
If the Tigers somehow reach that final series with a chance to keep their postseason hopes alive, they will have to empty the tank.
Eight Straight or Nothing
The equation is brutally simple.
Detroit has to win eight straight games.
Even then, the Tigers would still need plenty of help from other teams to make the postseason.
But that is a problem for another day.
For now, Detroit still has a pulse.
A team that looked completely finished just a few weeks ago has somehow clawed its way back into the conversation. The Tigers have refused to go quietly, and as long as that elimination mark stays away, neither should their fans.
Eight games remain.
Eight wins would create one of the wildest endings to a regular season in Tigers history.
The impossible is still possible.
