We know better, right?
The Tigers are on pace to win 102 times entering a series against a club, the Rockies, that has won just 18 percent of its games. The hot figure to be even hotter this week.
Deep down it’s understood that it’s unsustainable, but we just can’t help ourselves. At minimum, though, the Tigers are better, perhaps much better. That’s indisputable.
The first 35 games of the season went remarkably well. The Tigers faced a difficult schedule. Every team they played in March and April had a winning record last season, with the exception of three games the Tigers sucked up like the Mac Daddy of vacuum cleaners against the hapless White Sox.
After a tough opening series vs. the Dodgers, the Tigers just rolled by quality teams.
Spencer Torkelson is on track to hit 46 home runs with 125 RBI. Zach McKinstry is pacing for nearly a 9.0 WAR. Javy Baez looks like Hall-of-Famer Robin Yount with his seamless transition from shortstop to center field. The potential disaster of not having Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling, two of their top players, has turned out to be less than a pimple on the Tigers’ collective butt.
The Tigers will hit a rough patch this summer, though. Count on it.
Since the loss of Vierling and Meadows to begin the exhibition season, the Tigers have been relatively free of injuries. They did get through a gauntlet of an early-season schedule, and some well-deserved cookies are coming up, but the slate gets more difficult during the dog days of summer.
That doesn’t mean the Tigers are likely to fade in the standings. Their constant is extraordinary pitching. They will always be in games.
The offense is decidedly improved. Torkelson has made the proper adjustments. The addition of Gleyber Torres has helped. Catcher Dillion Dingler has significantly contributed.
Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter can flat-out hit, and are on an upward trajectory. Colt Keith and Trey Sweeney have started to warm up. Hip surgery has clearly helped Baez. He has been anything but an automatic out and has played shockingly well in center field.
The Tigers are 56-26, counting the playoffs, dating back to their dramatic turnaround last season. That’s more than half an MLB season with a .683 winning percentage, which is a 111-win pace. That is better than all but three teams in the 162-game era (2001 Mariners, 1998 Yankees and 2022 Dodgers).
It will be interesting to see how the Tigers handle road trips to the Yankees and Padres after winning series against those teams in Detroit. The Tigers have also yet to play the Guardians, who are typically strong despite key departures.
Cleveland started out even better last year than this edition of the Tigers and ended up with 92 wins. That sounds about right for the Tigers, who have 127 games remaining. If they play a game above .500 the remainder of the campaign (64-63), they will finish with last year’s total of 86 wins.
So, there is a lot of work to do. The Tigers are certainly capable of doing it, but it’s doubtful that it will be the cakewalk they’ve experienced lately.
One hundred-and-two wins would be nice, but not necessary. Just take the division and let the chips fall where they may.
It could be deeper into the postseason than imagined just a month ago.