Tigers extend win streak to season-best 6 behind Tork's turnaround

DETROIT -- Spencer Torkelson knew his seventh home run of the season was gone as soon as Griffin Canning’s first-pitch fastball left his bat. So did Canning, judging by the Angels starter’s reaction almost as soon as he released the ball. The way the Tigers have been playing, many in the crowd might have known it as soon as rookie Jace Jung’s 10-pitch walk brought Torkelson to the plate with a runner on in the second inning.

Jung fouled off two fastballs, a changeup on the outside edge of the strike zone and a sharp curveball before shrugging off a changeup in the dirt for the walk, his sixth in 11 games as a Tiger. He gave Torkelson a free look at Canning’s arsenal from the comfort of the on-deck circle.

“That’s huge,” said Torkelson, now 10-for-22 with two homers when putting the first pitch of an at-bat in play this season. “If only he could get like half a homer for that. [Canning] was probably worn out a little bit and laid it in there. I was definitely ready.”

This is how teams build success, by stringing together at-bats and taking advantage of opportunities. And with each victory, now six in a row with Wednesday’s 3-2 win, the Tigers move closer to a golden opportunity to bump up the clock on their timetable for contention.

The Tigers’ longest winning streak since 2022 has lifted Detroit above .500 this late in the season for the first time since 2016. Combined with the Twins’ current four-game losing streak, it has quietly crept the Tigers into the American League Wild Card race.

What was a 9 1/2-game chasm between Detroit and a Wild Card spot six days ago is down to 4 1/2 games between the Tigers and Twins. The team between them, the Red Sox, visits Comerica Park for three games this weekend.

What loomed as a stretch run focused on helping the Tigers make decisions for the future is turning into something much more immediate. But as aggressive as Detroit has been in games like this and pitches like Canning’s first-pitch fastball over the plate to Torkelson, it is more cautious in talking about what could lie ahead if this keeps up.

“No, we’re going to talk about trying to finish the series,” said manager A.J. Hinch, whose club has a chance at a three-game series sweep Thursday afternoon. "I appreciate the enthusiasm, and obviously, we’re in a much better place than we’ve been, and we’ve earned it. But that doesn’t help us win [Thursday], so I have to sort of keep everybody grounded and keep their head where their feet are.”

It’s classic manager speak. But it’s also what the players are saying for now, even as it sinks in that their run of success -- including nine wins in their past 11 games -- is impacting the playoff race beyond a typical spoiler role.

“Gosh, yeah, of course it sinks in,” Torkelson said. “But it’s [about] 'control the controllable.' We go about our business every single day, handle what we can, and at the end of the year, we’ll see where we’re at. But I think when teams start tasting [contention] and looking toward the future like, 'We’re right there, we’re so close,' they start to press, and they lose the character that got them there.

“I think we just need to stick with what we’ve got, keep playing hard, keep playing hard, keep pulling for one another, and I think good things are going to happen.”

While the Tigers’ win streak has come against the White Sox and Angels, their 16-9 August record includes five victories against the fellow contending Mariners and a series win over the Yankees. Their surge coincides with a youth movement that began after trading Jack Flaherty, Mark Canha, Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly at the July 30 Deadline and continued with the callups of Jung, Trey Sweeney and Dillon Dingler from Triple-A Toledo.

Most prominent might be the return of Torkelson, whose two-run home run was his third homer in his past seven games. He’s 14-for-42 (.333) with eight RBIs in 11 games since his return Aug. 17, coinciding with Detroit's 9-2 run. In the process, he has shown some of the adjustments the Tigers wanted to see from him when they sent him to Toledo in June, including an opposite-field single off a Canning slider Wednesday.

Like many teammates, he’s trying to prove he can stick in the Majors. In the process, he’s helping the Tigers slide into the race. Detroit is closer to a playoff spot than Chafin’s and Kelly’s Rangers or Canha’s Giants.