Exactly a month ago, the Tigers finished off a sweep in Cleveland to extend their lead over the Guardians to 15.5 games. It's down to six.
The Tigers dropped Wednesday's rubber match against the remains of the Twins, while the Guardians completed a sweep of the Mets to continue their charge in the AL Central. Suddenly, the race is on.
"We better worry about ourselves," A.J. Hinch said after the Tigers' 9-4 loss. "I think that’s something this group is pretty good at. We haven’t once talked about anything external. I don’t care if you have a 1-game lead or a 20-game lead, if you don’t play good baseball, I'm gonna sit up here and tell you we gotta do better. It’s irrelevant until we get later (in the season).
"I've been very, very consistent that you gotta play 162, and we haven’t done it yet. We’re going to, and we’re going to get tested."
They're getting tested right now. The Tigers are 9-16 since sweeping the Guardians on Fourth of July weekend, including a 1-12 slide last month. Cleveland over the same stretch is 19-7, with two big series between the clubs looming in September.
"Obviously we’re not playing up to our capabilities," said catcher Dillon Dingler. "I think everyone knows that. But like I said when we were going through it last and the week before that, nobody’s pressing. But it’s going to come up quick here, so we gotta make sure that we take care of it this next month and into September."
Jack Flaherty put the Tigers in an early 3-0 hole Wednesday. And while they rallied to take a 4-3 lead on a homer by Kerry Carpenter -- his fourth in nine games since returning from the injured list -- Flaherty quickly gave those runs back. Then the Tigers' beleaguered bullpen turned a close game into a bit of a rout when Tyler Holton allowed two homers in the sixth and Tommy Kahnle walked three straight batters in the seventh.
After snapping their skid with four straight wins to close July, the Tigers have dropped two series in a row. It's like watching last season in reverse, when the Tigers rallied from a 55-63 record and a 10-game deficit in the wild card race in early August to make a historic run to the playoffs.
"We've got a lot of work to do and a lot of things to address and right now we’re taking it on the chin in games, at least in the last week," said Hinch. "We’ve been riding this roller coaster, sort of good and bad, over the course of a few series. This one’s frustrating because it’s a series that we feel like we can win if we perform. But when you don’t at this level, you get reminded why it’s the toughest level."
Not that it mattered against the Twins, who razed their roster at the deadline, but the Tigers' schedule does look pretty cushy in the weeks ahead. Six of their next seven series come against teams with losing records. They better make hay, because it swings the other way in September, when they have series against the Mets, Red Sox and Yankees and two against Cleveland.
"I just felt completely out of sync," Flaherty said after surrendering eight hits and six runs in 4 2/3 innings Wednesday.
The same could be said for the Tigers over the last month. If they don't soon find their rhythm, they should know as well as anyone that no lead in the big leagues is safe.