The magic is back at Detroit’s Comerica Park and the Tigers’ magic number keeps shrinking.
With their latest victory, 7-1 over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, the Tigers saw their magic number to secure an American League wild card fall to three. Detroit (84-74) is tied for the second and third wild cards with the Kansas City Royals (84-74), who own the tiebreaker.
The Tigers and Royals remained two games ahead of the Minnesota Twins and 2 1/2 in front of the Seattle Mariners.
Detroit, which has won four straight and eight of its last nine contests, can complete a series sweep against the Rays on Thursday afternoon.
“We’ve got a lot more baseball to play,” Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson said in a postgame TV interview. “I love where we’re at. We’re winning each day and finding ways to get better every single day. We’ve got the city behind us. You can’t ask for anything more. It’s been an unbelievable couple of weeks.”
A crowd of 32,463 came out to watch the red-hot Tigers, who were sitting at .500 as recently as Sept. 6. They have won 13 of their past 16 games.
“We’re trying our best to make everybody in this city proud of us and we’re doing well,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “It means a lot that our fans care. It was an electric atmosphere (Wednesday), and this is exactly what we want at Comerica.”
Parker Meadows provided some early thunder with a leadoff homer in the first inning. Torkelson, who struck out in the second and fourth innings, blasted a two-run homer and added an RBI double.
“We need him to be a threat,” Hinch said of Torkelson. “He had a couple tough at-bats and then all of sudden, boom, he changed the dynamic of the game.”
As he has often done the second half of the season, Hinch played the matchup game with his pitching staff. He cycled through six pitchers on Wednesday with 22-year-old right-hander Jackson Jobe pitching a scoreless ninth inning in his big-league debut.
Jobe, the majors’ top pitching prospect according to MLB Pipeline, was called up from Triple-A Toledo on Tuesday.
Tampa Bay (78-80) officially was eliminated from playoff contention with the loss. The Rays were three games over .500 on May 18, but they lost 16 of their next 24 games.
The Rays came into Detroit on a four-game winning streak, but back-to-back losses erased all hope of a postseason berth.
“Unfortunately not how we wanted it (to go) with the start of the season. But we are where we kind of played and how we performed,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “But there’s certainly optimism finishing strong and going into next year.”
Reese Olson (4-8, 3.49 ERA) will start the series finale for Detroit.
The right-hander has made two appearances since recovering from a right shoulder strain that sidelined him for nearly two months. After giving up four runs in 2 1/3 innings to Kansas City, Olson held the Baltimore Orioles to one run in three innings on Saturday. He threw 58 pitches in that outing and is unlikely to go long enough to qualify for a win on Thursday.
Olson has faced the Rays once, and he allowed four runs in five innings on Aug. 4, 2023.
Left-hander Tyler Alexander (6-5, 5.35 ERA) will get the ball for Tampa Bay. In his most recent outing, he threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings on Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays in a game the Rays won 1-0.
His lone career outing against Detroit came on April 24, when he pitched four innings of two-run relief.
–Field Level Media
