Postseason in sight as Tigers win 6th straight

Hours after JaCoby Jones excitedly talked about being part of a playoff race, the Tigers drew within a half-game of the final American League Wild Card spot. But they¡¯ll have to carry on their chase without Jones.

The Tigers¡¯ 12-1 win over the Brewers on Tuesday night at Miller Park moved them just behind the Blue Jays in the expanded AL postseason bracket. Detroit¡¯s six-game winning streak is its longest since 2016, which is also the last time the club held a winning record in September. The Tigers haven¡¯t carried this long of a winning streak into September since 2011, when they rode 12 straight wins to their first of four consecutive AL Central titles.

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But the win came at a cost, as Jones suffered a fractured left hand when he was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning and will miss the rest of the season.

¡°I feel bad for JaCoby,¡± Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. ¡°He's taking strides in his game to become a pretty good player and now we lose him.¡±

After 310 losses over the previous three seasons, including a 114-loss campaign last year, a postseason berth would be a historic turnaround for Detroit, even in a shortened season. For now, the Tigers are playing like a team with no pressure on its shoulders.

¡°As far as a playoff push, we're not really talking about it much, because there's no need to change anything,¡± said starter Michael Fulmer, whose three scoreless innings with six strikeouts set the tone. ¡°Everybody's having fun and staying loose and we keep winning ballgames, so that's all that really matters.¡±

Fulmer was part of the Tigers¡¯ last winning team and playoff race in 2016, winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award at season¡¯s end. That club took its Wild Card hopes into the final day of the season. But it was also a veteran team with All-Stars Justin Verlander, J.D. Martinez, Justin Upton, Ian Kinsler, Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera in his 38-homer prime.

This Tigers club ranks among the youngest rosters in the league, despite veteran contributors Cabrera, Jonathan Schoop and Austin Romine. Daniel Norris, whose 2 1/3 innings of one-run ball earned him the win Tuesday, was a key starter in the late-season charge in 2016, along with Fulmer and Matthew Boyd.

For this team to vault into a playoff spot would be fitting for 2020.

¡°I don't think anybody knows anything about this funky year,¡± Fulmer said. ¡°Back in the playoff push of 2016, you [saw] it coming. But right now, we haven't really had that talk, because why change something that's not broken?¡±

Most of the Tigers¡¯ offense Tuesday came from players who weren¡¯t in the Majors in 2016, let alone in Detroit. Victor Reyes, a Rule 5 Draft pick before the 2018 season, had his second four-hit game in four days from the leadoff spot, contributing a two-run homer and two-run double in a career-high five-RBI performance. Rookie infielder Willi Castro, who made his Major League debut last August, hit a third-inning double and fourth-inning RBI triple off Brewers starter Josh Lindblom. Christin Stewart, a first-round Draft pick in 2015, added a solo homer.

Bryan Garcia, Detroit¡¯s sixth-round pick in 2016, recorded the most critical outs of the game when he inherited a bases-loaded, one-out jam from Norris in the sixth inning with a five-run lead. The rookie reliever ran the count full on Eric Sogard before inducing a pop-up that Castro caught at the top of the third-base dugout. Once Orlando Arcia flew out to Jones to end the threat, the Tigers¡¯ lead was safe.

¡°We trust a certain amount of guys out there with the bases loaded,¡± Gardenhire said. ¡°That¡¯s not the situation you want to bring him in.¡±

Asked how to keep Jones¡¯ injury from deflating the enthusiasm over the win and the streak, Gardenhire kept it loose.

¡°Drink heavily? Maybe not,¡± he joked. ¡°No, we¡¯re enjoying the win. We knocked the fire out of the ball, and we played good. We got decent enough pitching. Our bullpen hung in there really good. ¡­ A lot of stuff happened tonight, and we¡¯ll just have to turn the page.¡±