CLEVELAND — What a week in the American League Central.
A division that had achieved laughing-stock status in recent years has emphatically emerged as arguably the most compelling — and competitive — subgroup in MLB. With four teams vying for postseason position (and another in Chicago on the verge of unfortunate history), the AL Central will remain in the spotlight over the final week of the regular season and perhaps beyond.
This penultimate week of regular-season play featured two highly consequential matchups, with Minnesota in Cleveland for four games and the red-hot Tigers paying a visit to Kansas City for three. With only one divisional series left on the schedule — the White Sox in Detroit on the final weekend — this was the last chance for these four October hopefuls to gain ground in the standings at the direct expense of their rivals.
The Tigers’ second-half surge after acting as sellers at the trade deadline has left much of the baseball world dazed and confused. Even coming off a rousing series victory against the scuffling Orioles, Detroit’s trip to Kauffman Stadium, where the Royals boasted one of baseball’s best home records, looked like a daunting task on paper. Instead, Detroit kept on rolling. After surrendering a grand slam to Bobby Witt Jr. in the third inning of the series opener, the Tigers’ army of largely anonymous arms held the Royals to five runs over the ensuing 25 innings en route to a stunning sweep at the most opportune time.
Playoff odds that barely climbed above 2% for much of August, according to FanGraphs, have skyrocketed lately for the Tigers, opening the door for them to end what is tied with the Angels for baseball’s longest postseason drought. Detroit’s three starting pitchers in its most recent postseason series? Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Price. In other words: It’s been a while.
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Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Guardians were hoping to avoid a repeat of what happened three weeks ago, when Kansas City strolled into town and took three of four. It was during that series that the Guardians briefly relinquished sole possession of first place for the first time since mid-April, but they have course-corrected brilliantly since then and entered this week’s series on a much higher note than their opponent.
Because their opponent was feeling the…