David Richard- USA TODAY Sports
Life has been easy for Detroit Tigers fans the last eight games, but the schedule is going to start to put some fear into the faithful starting on Monday as the Tigers travel to Cleveland for four games. Gone are the teams who have all but packed it in, and here is the 10-game road trip that could very well tell us if the Tigers have finally crossed that barrier into being a safe playoff team.
The Cleveland Indians have matched the Tigers win for win since the All-Star break, but they also have done it against below .500 teams, so both teams will head into this critical series needing to step up their games if they wish to stay hot and keep their records chugging toward October.
Splitting the series is a minimum requirement if you are the Tigers. Three out of four would be divine, and a sweep would effectively mean that fans can collect their playoff tickets at the front desk. Domination has come easy for the Tigers against the Indians this season as they own a 9-3 record against the Tribe, including taking three out of four the last time they were in Cleveland in July.
This is a different Indians team however, as they have mowed down their opponents and had many incredible comebacks and walk-offs reminiscent of the Oakland Athletics‘ run last season. Cleveland is only getting stronger at a time where the Tigers’ win streak could have completely buried them.
So for the Tigers, it’s simple: keep riding the best starting pitching staff in the league and just try to scrap as many runs as you can.
This is not going to be a high-scoring series, so it’s going to be crucial for the Tigers to get slim leads late and hope that the back-end of the bullpen, which has seen a resurgence under Joaquin Benoit‘s run as closer, can find ways to slam the door.
The Indians have been much better than the Tigers in close games and that is a concern, but the Tigers just need to craftily find ways to win at all costs.
It’s a big series for early August, and both teams are well aware of the implications.
