Here come the Tigers? Again? 'We do have a good team'

A.J. Hinch gets it. He feels it. He even hears it, especially during those frustrating nights at Comerica Park when the fans behind the Tigers' dugout voice their displeasure: "I know this has been a difficult season on a lot of people, namely the players," Hinch said Wednesday morning before the Tigers swept the Yankees in the Bronx.

"These guys are grinding. I gave Riley Greene his first day off in the entire season (on Monday), and that’s mainly a result of us not playing well in the month of May. I just didn’t feel like I could give anybody a day off at that point. He responds with a couple homers (on Tuesday), which was awesome, and now I got guys lobbying for off-days left and right," Hinch said with a laugh.

Suddenly, the Tigers feel good about themselves again. They pitched the injury-ravaged Yankees into submission this week, and they will be the last to apologize for taking advantage of a wounded foe. In the same breath Wednesday, Hinch said the Tigers are "finally getting healthy" and "still have 10 guys on the 60-day IL." Their top reliever, Will Vest, landed on the 15-day IL Wednesday morning.

That afternoon, the Tigers got another dominant start by Troy Melton, some clutch pitches out of the bullpen by Keider Montero, who's been a dominant starter himself, and enough well-timed swings to sweep their first series at Yankee Stadium since 2008. They are one of five teams in the atrocious American League -- and the only team in their destitute division -- with a positive run differential.

And so we're back to asking ourselves: do the Tigers have a chance?

"We know where we’re at," said Hinch. "We’re very realistic with where we’re at, and we feel like we have a good team. I’ve had multiple players on other teams come up to me and ask me, like, ‘What the hell happened?’ Because they don’t see us as a team at the bottom of the division or bottom of the league or toward the back tier of teams."

The Tigers remain 11 games under .500, eight games back in the division, and six games back in the wild card race with six teams to jump. They are still much closer to the basement of the AL than a playoff spot. But in the AL, just six teams are above .500 (compared to 10 in the NL). Despite the Tigers' best (worst) efforts, there's still a path forward.

"There’s urgency, and there’s a ton of things we need to do well, and we have a small margin for error," said Hinch.

The Yankees have lost seven straight since taking two of three in Detroit last week. They're missing their top two sluggers in Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, and this time, the Tigers made them pay. Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Melton combined to allow two runs and four hits with 26 strikeouts and one walk in 19 1/3 innings. Now they Tigers go to Texas with Framber Valdez, Jack Flaherty and Mize on deck.

It sounds silly to keep saying it, but this is the formula. May was rotten, and still might be the month that sinks them. But in June, the Tigers had the lowest rotation ERA in the majors and the lowest team ERA in the American League. They also hit the most homers in the majors. They went 16-11.

And so we're back to asking ourselves ...

"The thing that I believe in is the players," said Hinch. "I believe in the starting pitching. If you look at June, the way that we threw the ball out of the gate and hit the ball out of the ballpark and created some advantages with platoons, that’s how we’re built. Our run differential is fine, our record is not. The record is really what counts. I think we have a winning record against teams above .500, and to me those are signs that we do have a good team. We have a bad record."

The four other AL teams with a positive run differential have a winning record. Ditto the three other AL teams with a winning record against teams that are above .500. The eight other teams in the majors that fit both descriptions have -- you guessed it -- a winning record. How could the Tigers be in such good company, and such bad shape in the standings?

Their most fatal flaw popped up again Wednesday when they blew their 19th save of the season, most in the AL. This was just the second time they salvaged a win. Had the Tigers closed out even half those games, they would lead their division. 17 of those blown saves are on the hands of Will Vest, Kyle Finnegan, Kenley Jansen and Wednesday's culprit Drew Anderson, the four highest-paid pitchers in their bullpen.

To a man, the Tigers know the stakes of the next month. They have to mount a charge to avoid a sell-off at the Aug. 3 trade deadline that would likely include Skubal and Mize, for starters. They have to be even better than they were in June. For all their good work last month, they only jumped three teams -- gained just one game -- in the wild card race.

Can they shave the deficit to three games -- and three teams -- by August? Can they gain similar ground in the division?

"The stories of seasons are built by being able to (withstand) turbulence," said Hinch. "Our turbulence was pretty bad in May, so our run needs to be pretty urgent in order to continue with this team that we believed in from the beginning."

The next mile-marker for the Tigers is the All-Star break. They visit the Rangers for three this weekend, then come home for six against the A's and Phillies. If they win each series, they can bank at least six wins, and "get into the break feeling good about ourselves because of the way that we played in June, and not continually drag May into it," said Hinch.

"It’s part of the story, because we were pretty bad in May getting to the finish line and being able to find any wins," he said. "And that’s going to cost us for a while. But we're going in the right direction. It’s just a matter of linking some wins with good starting pitching and our primary guys producing at the plate.

"That’s proved to be more wins for us in June, and that’s a good sign going into July."

So we're back to asking ourselves ... and waiting for the Tigers to answer.