From rock bottom to playoff push: How Tigers turned around their 2024 season

It was the Fourth of July, a quintessential summer holiday, yet it was a miserable day in Minneapolis.

The Detroit Tigers were in the midst of their longest road trip of the season. The rain, at first a pesky drizzle, got worse as the game went on.

The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Twins responded with 12 unanswered runs , nine against struggling Detroit starter Kenta Maeda.

The game was mercifully called in the seventh inning when a Twins player was nearly drilled in the head by a pitch that slipped out of the hand of Tigers reliever Shelby Miller.

The Tigers were 39-48, out of the playoff race and marching toward another trade deadline as sellers.

Two low points

That was the first of two low points before the Tigers revived their season and played their way into the playoff picture.

As of Friday morning, the Tigers (80-73) are tied with the Minnesota Twins (80-73) for the final American League wild-card spot.

They've gone 41-25 since that disappointing Independence Day at Target Field.

After the blowout loss, the Tigers flew to Cincinnati and swept the Reds, the finale punctuated by a career-high 13 strikeouts from Tarik Skubal .

Back in Detroit, the Tigers took three of four from the Cleveland Guardians and two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The latter series included two dramatic walk-off victories that will go down among the most thrilling of the season .

It looked for a moment like the Tigers might make things interesting. But the momentum evaporated quickly and they limped to the July 30 trade deadline.

The Tigers dealt veterans Jack Flaherty, Andrew Chafin, Carson Kelly and Mark Canha . They weren't waving a white flag, but the focus was shifting to 2025.

The defeats kept piling up after the deadline. The Tigers lost on a walk-off on Aug. 8 at Seattle and then on Aug. 9 at San Francisco .

After another loss to the Giants on Aug. 10 , the Tigers fell to 55-63. They were 10 games out of the playoff race and only three teams in the American League had a worse record .

It was the second rock-bottom moment of the summer.

But it didn't last long. The Tigers salvaged the road trip with a series-ending win over the Giants. They destroyed the Mariners, 15-1 , in their first game back home and Kerry Carpenter's first game since May.

The Tigers were off and rolling.

With key players returning from injury, a retooled lineup, and some unexpected contributions, the Tigers began their improbable playoff push.

Since Aug. 10, they've gone 25-10. If they make the playoffs, they'll become the first team since the 1973 New York Mets to qualify for the postseason in a non-shortened season after being eight or more games under .500 in August.

Return of key players

How did the Tigers get from there to here?

The return of outfielders Parker Meadows ( Aug. 3 ), Carpenter ( Aug. 13 ) and Riley Greene ( Aug. 18 ) dramatically improved the Tigers' lineup. All three players had missed a good chunk of the summer due to injury.

Since Aug. 10, the trio has combined to hit .273 (92-for-337) with an .854 OPS. They have 17 doubles, six triples and 18 home runs.

Their presence at the top of the order has transformed the Tigers into a far more dangerous team offensively.

Other late-summer additions have also boosted the Tigers.

New faces, new roles

Spencer Torkelson returned to the big-league club on Aug. 17 after a 10-week demotion to Triple-A Toledo. He has a .781 OPS with four homers and five doubles since then .

On the pitching side, right-hander Brenan Hanifee ( promoted on Aug. 1 ) and lefty Sean Guenther (promoted permanently on Aug. 22) have helped stabilize the bullpen and been thrust into high-leverage situations repeatedly during the Tigers' playoff push - including key moments this week in Kansas City .

They've combined for a 1.36 ERA in 33 innings since Aug. 10.

Rookie Brant Hurter ( promoted on Aug. 4 ) has probably flown under the radar because of his unconventional role entering behind an opener. Seven of his eight "starts" haven't actually been starts. But he's third on the team in innings pitched since the start of the Tigers' surge on Aug. 10, striking out 34 and walking just five over 35 2/3 innings.

Help from familiar faces

While the return of key outfielders energized the lineup, the Tigers also benefitted from increased production from players already on the roster.

Take Zach McKinstry, who seemed on the verge of losing his roster spot when the Tigers began to bring up younger players in August. When veteran Gio Urshela was released , it seemed like McKinstry might be next.

But the utility man not only kept his roster spot, he's been one of the Tigers' most important and versatile players. Since Aug. 10, he's hitting .312 (24-for-77) with six doubles, a triple, a homer and seven stolen bases, while playing just about every spot on the diamond (and doing it well).

Other players helped hold down the fort during lean times.

Since July 5, Matt Vierling and Colt Keith have combined for nearly 500 plate appearances, carrying much of the offensive load while Carpenter, Greene, and Meadows were sidelined. They've hit .287 with a .780 OPS during that time, carrying the offensive load when the Tigers' sluggers were out.

On the mound, Skubal has carried the club on his back with remarkable consistency throughout his Cy Young-worthy campaign. The Tigers have won nine of his 13 starts since July 5.

In the bullpen, there are simply no more superlatives to describe lefty Tyler Holton, who is 4-0 with a 0.40 ERA in 45 1/3 innings since July 5. He's handled a variety of roles - from opener, to fifth-inning fireman, to closer.

Roster moves that mattered

Then there's the final, more controversial aspect of the Tigers' ascension: Addition by subtraction.

Simply put, underperforming players have seen their roles diminish as the Tigers prioritize those contributing to the playoff push.

Maeda is one example. He lost his starting job shortly after the ugly July 4 outing in July. He hasn't been hurt, but he's pitched only a dozen times over the last 10 weeks.

The Tigers cut ties with Urshela, a well-respected veteran, to give more opportunities to young talent like Jace Jung.

Javier Baez, the Tigers' everyday shortstop for the last three seasons, underwent season-ending hip surgery in August . In his absence, rookie Trey Sweeney has been rock-solid, raising very real questions about whether Baez still fits into the Tigers' long-term plans .

Managing for October

Finally, it would be impossible to chart the Tigers' comeback without discussing some of the strategic pitching decisions of manager A.J. Hinch.

Take Friday night's huge game in Baltimore: We won't know who will start until just a few hours before game time, and even then, the starter's workload will remain a mystery. After that, will Hinch turn to a bulk reliever? Will it be a lefty or righty? How long will he pitch? This unpredictability has kept opponents guessing for the last two months.

Hinch has employed a mix of openers, bulk relievers, bullpen games, mixing and matching to keep opposing managers off-balance and put his young pitchers in the best position to be successful.

Initially, this approach was seen as a stopgap solution to injuries in the starting rotation, but it has evolved into a winning formula.

With pitchers like Holton, Hanifee, and Hurter thriving in flexible roles, Hinch has some weapons he can take into October.

It also provides a template for how Hinch will manage if the Tigers make the playoffs: Skubal, if available, will start Game 1. Then it will be all hands on deck for Games 2 and 3. Expect to see Hinch deploy starters in relief roles and lean heavily on his bullpen, letting matchups dictate every move.

Hinch and his staff have pushed all the right buttons, but it's the players like Skubal, Holton, Meadows and others who have turned around a lost season and given the Tigers a shot to make the playoffs for the first time in a decade. From that dismal July day in Minneapolis, or those brutal August losses on the West Coast, the Tigers' rise has been a collective effort. October is no longer a long shot - it's within reach.