Tigers Blogging: Broken Dreams and Shattered Bats

This is the post I haven't wanted to write. Because it means that I'm throwing in the towel on the Tiger's season. After this afternoon's loss to the Indians, it's pretty clear that winning the division is a lost cause. The Tigers are now 7.5 games behind Cleveland with only 9 games to play. And the wild card spot is equally out of reach since they're now six losses behind New York. The Yankees might catch the Red Sox but it doesn't matter, one gets the pennant, the other gets the wild card spot. The Tigers are in the same place as last year's White Sox. A promising team that's out of the playoffs despite a solid run deep into the postseason last year.

Back towards the beginning of the season, everything seemed to be going right. The struggling Yankees and the ascendancy of the Red Sox meant that, even though Cleveland was rocketing to their own excellent start, the Tigers would at least be a lock for the wild card.

Even around the middle of the season, with Verlander's no-hitter, Roger's returning to roast hitters, and the promised return of Zumaya which would life the sagging bullpen, things looked fine. The wild card was within easy reach and a return to the playoffs to avenge last years collapse seemed to be in the cards.

Now? Well, the Tigers would have to win every game from here on out and the Yankees would have to play sub-.500 just to force a one-game playoff.

What the hell happened?

The Tigers have actually put together a decent September, made a respectable push to get to the postseason, this latest series against Cleveland notwithstanding. But the Indians and the Yankees have been even better. Detroit has just not been able to make up any ground. And those early loses with a struggling bullpen and the late ones with a shaky rotation just can't be overcome.

But I can't be too upset. After so many years of failure and frustration, The real accomplishment of these Tigers is that barely missing out on the playoffs seems like a disappointment.