Part of me wants to type “FINALLY” one hundred times like I’m Jack Nicholson in The Shining. If you listened closely during the sixth, you could actually hear Tiger fans across the nation screaming and letting out a collective sigh of relief as the floodgates finally opened for the first time in what seemed like weeks. In an instant, the team remembered how to hit with guys on base. It turns out the weight was well worth it.
After one of the most maddening, heartbreaking, frustrating, and insane months of Detroit Tiger baseball, the 2025 version of the Motor City Kitties has somehow figured out a way to salvage their campaign. They go to Cleveland in a winner-take-all game and figure out a way to get it done. It was a collective effort. I talk about it in the video. Many men deserve their flowers today. It starts with the pitching staff. You needed the good version of Jack Flaherty, and that’s exactly what they got. I thought AJ managed it brilliantly. Flaherty twice through the order then you turn it over to Finnegan. Kyle Finnegan is here for those high-leverage moments. He was fantastic in this series, as was Tyler Holton, who has been a thorn in the Guardians' side all year.
Even with the incredible pitching and the big Dillon Dingler home run to put the Tigers in front in the middle innings, the baseball gods were not going to let Detroit win this game by just scratching and clawing. The big inning had to come, and it finally came in the sixth inning when Detroit dropped four runs with a heavy majority of them being driven in by the much-maligned heart of the order, which has struggled mightily over the last month.
Maybe today’s game was just the Tigers exorcising their Cleveland Demons. Perhaps this is the nice feather in the cap that salvages a campaign that went sideways in the final months, or maybe Detroit now has momentum. Last I checked, Seattle is going to have to face Tarik school. While Seattle had tremendous success against Detroit in the regular season, including sweeping them in Comerica for the final series of the first half, Detroit does not need to show that they’re better than Seattle over 162 games. They have to be better three times in a five-game series. Would I pick them? Not necessarily, but it’s more than possible.
For a month, we’ve watched this team and just felt like they needed to get back into production again. They needed to see the ball go over the fence and drive in a few runs. We waited for that moment, and it never came until today. At the very least, I think the entire organization can wipe sweat off its brow. When people tell the story of the 15 1/2 game collapse, you will have to include the final chapter that involves Detroit landing a knockout punch at Progressive Field. Who knows what’s next, but today was pure ecstasy.