Kuzul

The Kansas City Royals have waited quite a while for this—29 years, to be exact—but at long, long, looooong last, they’re returning to the postseason.

With their 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night, the Royals clinched a playoff berth for the first time since—c’mon, you can do the math!—1985. Finally.

Folks, that’s an eternity in the sports world, as Sam Mellinger of The Kansas City Star reminds:

That’s the longest drought in North American sports, and longer than many of the players on this [Royals] team have been alive. Salvador Perez, the Royals’ two-time All-Star catcher, was born five years after the 1985 World Series.

Heck, it’s an eternity in the real world, too. To put things in context, back in October 1985, Ronald Reagan was president, the No. 1 song on the charts was “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits and the highest-grossing film at the box office was Back to the Future, starring Michael J. Fox.

“It’s been a long time. It’s been a challenging road,” general manager Dayton Moore said to Ben Reiter of Sports Illustrated in the Aug. 25 issue. Talk about an understatement. Then again, Moore has been in the organization only since 2006.

It’s taken the Royals 29 years to make it back to the playoffs—to paraphrase Doc Brown: “Great freakin‘ Scott!”—but the last time they were there, they won it all. So who knows?

While a good amount went right this year for Kansas City to put an end to this unfathomably long rut, clearly a lot more went a whole lot wronger to keep it going as long as it did.

What follows is a rundown of 29 mishaps—various flops, follies and faux pas—that helped define the Royals’ nearly three full decades worth of regular-season futility. There are more out there, we just liked these best.

1. The Royals have become notorious for many things, but one that sticks out is the club’s consistent lack of power throughout its history. Even this season, K.C. ranks dead last in homers—by quite a bit, too.

In 1985, though, slugging first baseman Steve “Bye Bye” Balboni smacked his 36th and final home run on the third-to-last day of the season. Alas, that total remains in the Royals’ record books as the most by any player in a single season—and the lowest by any MLB franchise ever.

2. Trading away promising or even productive young players became a staple of the Royals during this period. No one better embodies that than David Cone, a third-round selection by Kansas City in 1981 who actually was born in the city, too.

Well, despite all that, the club traded the right-hander not once but twice. The first swap came in 1987 when he and Chris Jelic were sent to the New York Mets for catcher Ed Hearn and pitchers Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo, none of whom amounted to anything in the majors.

The second time the Royals traded Cone came in 1995, two seasons after he’d re-signed with the franchise as a free agent. The Toronto Blue Jays sent future utility man Chris Stynes along with infielder Tony Medrano and pitcher David Sinnes, the latter two of which never even reached the majors.

Cone, of course, wound up winning 194 games in his 17-year career, and he pitched in 21 postseason games across eight different Octobers with the Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees, going 8-3. All told, he won five titles.

3. One of the most exciting players in not one but two sports in the 1980s, Bo Jackson was both an All-Pro running back for the Los Angeles Raiders and an All-Star outfielder for the Royals.

Having hit a memorable leadoff homer and winning MVP of the 1989 All-Star Game, his baseball career was just starting to take off when he suffered a career-threatening hip injury in January 1991—while playing in an NFL game. Making matters worse for the Royals, it was a Raiders playoff game, too.

“Four days before I had the hip injury,” Jackson told ESPN in 2012 (h/t Silver and Black Pride), “my wife and I sat down and talked about my sports career and I was planning on announcing my retirement from football that season…I swear to you.”

Just 28 years old at the time, Jackson was never the same and eventually required hip-replacement surgery. Sure, he wound up coming back to baseball, but it wasn‘t with the Royals—and he wasn‘t the same Bo.

4. In 1989, K.C. went 92-70, winning the third-most games in all of baseball but still fell short of October, because the eventual-champion Oakland Athletics won the AL West with a 99-63 mark. Back then, there were just four divisions and only the division winners made it to October.

5. Another regrettable trade of a top pitcher to the Mets, this one from 1991: Right-hander Bret Saberhagen, who had won two Cy Young Awards with the Royals in 1985 and 1989, was jettisoned with Bill Pecota (yes, that Bill Pecota) for a package of an aging Kevin McReynolds, fringe utilityman Keith Miller and one-time top prospect Gregg Jefferies.

Jefferies, the No. 20 overall pick in 1985 (there’s that year again!), would play only one season in Kansas City before being dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals for Felix Jose and Craig Wilson.

Injuries plagued Sabes as a Met, but he also set an MLB record with an 11-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (broken this year by Phil Hughes) and finished third in the 1994 Cy Young voting while in New York.

6. The entire organization became more or less rudderless in the early 1990s. In ’90, GM John Schuerholz, who had built the successful squads of the previous decade, left to take over decision-making duties with the Atlanta Braves, who went on to be one of the consistently great teams of the ’90s.

Then in 1993, franchise founder and owner Ewing Kauffman died—the stadium was named in his honor a month before his passing—and the Royals were turned over to a trust, to be run by a board of directors for seven years until Wal-Mart honcho David Glass bought the team in 2000.

“We didn’t have an owner for seven years,” longtime Royals scout Art Stewart said to Harvey Araton of The New York Times in 2012. “That’s what killed us.”

7. Simultaneously hilarious and dangerous, perhaps the best word to describe this April 1993 tirade by manager Hal McRae is infamous:

8. The 1994 players’ strike came at a bad time for the sport as a whole, but it was especially ill-timed for the Royals, who won 14 consecutive games—the second-longest streak in franchise history—from July 23 through Aug. 5 to climb back into the AL Central race.

K.C. was 64-51 and only four games out of first when the season was canceled and would have had six more weeks to try to run down Chicago White Sox and get to October. If that had happened, almost an entire decade would have been wiped off the 29-year drought. Instead, the Royals went on to eight straight losing seasons starting with 1995.

9. Tony Muser became Kansas City’s manager in 1997, but he took an awfully circuitous route to get there.

A big league first baseman in the 1970s, Muser went on to become the third base coach of the Milwaukee Brewers in 1985. He was in line to become the club’s manager, succeeding George Bamberger, when a scary gas explosion in the Brewers clubhouse during 1986 spring training injured him so badly that he nearly lost his life and missed the entire season.

“When I opened the door, Muser was on fire,” Brewers public relations director Tom Skibosh said via The Associated Press in the aftermath of a blaze that injured 10.

So third base coach Tom Trebelhorn took over late in ’86 and stayed on the bench for five more years, while Muser returned as the hitting coach through 1989. At that point, though, he was sent to the minors to manage Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate. From there, Muser joined the Chicago Cubs as hitting coach until 1997. That’s when he was named K.C.’s manager midway through the season, taking over for Bob Boone.

All in all, after Muser lost out on the Brewers job because of a freak accident, it took him more than a decade to land his first MLB managerial gig—and it came with the Royals, who wound up going 317-431 (.424) in his six-year tenure.

Oh, and when the team fired—er, dismissed—him after an 8-15 start in 2002, Muser found out from a reporter first. Poor guy.

10. While on the topic of managers, it’s worth noting here that since last reaching October the Royals have used three different managers in a single season—on three different occasions:

Sure, there were some interims in there, but the above typifies the general lack of cohesion in the clubhouse over an extended period of time.

11. Here’s the great Joe Posnanski, a former Kansas City Star columnist and general Royals apologist/sufferer, on Kansas City’s 77-85 2000 season, which was the first of new GM Allard Baird—and right before things would go from bad to worse in the early part of the aughts:

The Royals pulled off a rather remarkable feat in 2000, something I did not realize in the time:

They led the league in hitting but had a below league-average on-base percentage.

I bolded and italicized that little factoid because it had not happened in the league since 1961, and in many ways I think that sentence perfectly reflects the Kansas City Royals of the 2000s. They were always aiming for the wrong thing. The 2000s decade in baseball may be remembered for our emerging sense of performance enhancing drugs and also for the statistical revolution that, in many ways, changed the way the game was observed, scouted and played. The Royals throughout the decade always would seem one step behind the times. And so, it’s appropriate that the Royals entered their decade of doom leading the league in a category that SEEMED important—batting average—but eighth in the category that WAS important, on-base percentage.

12. Mark Quinn was the very epitome of the Royals’ utter lack of attention to OBP around this time.

A year after finishing third in the 2000 Rookie of the Year voting, Quinn went an astonishing 60 straight games—and 241 plate appearances—without registering a single (unintentional) walk. His streak became so well known that when he finally did take a free pass, on Aug. 30, 2001, the team celebrated by setting off fireworks.

Here’s an account of the occasion from Ken Corbitt of the Topeka Capital-Journal:

As Quinn trotted to first base, the sparse crowd of 12,159 gave him a standing ovation and fireworks—normally reserved for a home run—were set off.

‘It was all in good fun,’ Quinn said. ‘I’m glad to get that monkey off my back. Now everybody can find something else to blow up and make a big deal out of.’

13. Johnny Damon pretty much was the Kansas City Royals in the mid-to-late-1990s. But just as he was about to get expensive while approaching free agency, the club traded him to the Athletics as part of a three-team swap also involving the Tampa Bay Rays in the offseason before the 2001 campaign.

The return? Try closer Roberto Hernandez, catcher A.J. Hinch and shortstop prospect Angel Berroa. Damon, you might remember, finished his career with more than 2,700 hits, 1,600 runs and 400 stolen bases—and helped the Boston Red Sox end the 86-year Curse of the Bambino in 2004.

14. Speaking of Berroa, now is a good time to revisit the three Royals who won Rookie of the Year during this span. That should be a good thing, right? Well, each instance turned out poorly for K.C.

Pudgy, bespectacled designated hitter Bob Hamelin (.282 BA, 24 HR, 65 RBI) won the award in 1994, followed by outfielder Carlos Beltran (.293 BA, 22 HR, 108 RBI, 27 SB) in 1999 and then Berroa (.287 BA, 92 R, 17 HR, 21 SB) in 2003.

Thing is, both Hamelin and Berroa‘s first-year performances were fluky, and each would be demoted to the minors the very season after they earned Rookie of the Year. Hamelin eventually called it quits in the dugout during a Triple-A game in 1997, and Berroa returned to the majors but put up the lowest on-base and slugging percentage in the sport in 2006.

While Beltran was a true star-in-the-making, well…

15. …he became yet another stud the Royals traded away in his prime.

In June 2004, Beltran was a 27-year-old switch-hitting center fielder—just about the most valuable commodity there is—and Kansas City unloaded him to the Houston Astros for a package of infielder Mark Teahen, catcher John Buck and pitcher Mike Wood. Oh, and cash.

In his half-season with the ‘Stros, Beltran went bonkers, launching 23 homers, swiping 28 bases and scoring 70 runs in only 90 games. That propelled them to the playoffs, where he hit .435 and established a new record with eight homers in a single postseason before Houston bowed out in the NLCS.

As fate would have it, Beltran became one of the best October performers in MLB history—while Royals fans were left merely to wonder “What if…”

16. Let’s just go ahead and polish off here the bad trades K.C. made involving what had been a young, dynamic outfield core that was one of the finest around and together from 1998 through 2000. Damon and Beltran have been covered, so that leaves Jermaine Dye, who actually was the second of the three to go.

When it came time to unload Dye in July 2001 before (you guessed it) his salary got too steep, the Royals shipped him out and all they received for a 27-year-old who was an All-Star and Gold Glove winner in 2000 was…shortstop Neifi Perez.

For realz, Allard Baird? Like, the same Neifi Perez who in 2002 posted the second-worst season* (based on FanGraphs‘ wins above replacement) by any player since 1933?

Between the trades involving Damon, Dye and Beltran—all of which happened between January 2001 and June 2004—the Royals proved they were really, really good at giving away productive, in-their-prime talent and getting next to nothing in return.

*The player with the lowest WAR post-1933? That would be none other than outfielder-slash-headcase Jose Guillen, on whom the Royals would choose to make one of their rare free-agent splurges at the price of $36 million in December 2007—10 years after his -3.1 WAR 1997.

17. Beyond their problems with trades, the Royals were pretty inept (or at least, unlucky) when it came to the draft, too.

While they eventually figured things out enough to rank as the No. 1 farm system in baseball in 2011, according to Baseball America, here’s a rundown of their top picks from 1993 (the year after Damon) through 2001 (the year before Zack Greinke) and how they fared—or you know, didn‘t:

Another way to look at that crop? “Combined, they acquired 36 wins and 190 hits in the major leagues,” as Chris Rasmussen of Kansas City’s The Pitch puts it.

However you want to put it, that is almost impossibly bad.

18. “And with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 draft, the Kansas City Royals select…Luke Hochevar.”

As bad as the club’s top draft picks from 1993-2001 were, perhaps the biggest bust (or misfire) came in ’06, when the Royals owned the top choice for the only time in franchise history—and didn‘t even have a GM at the time they made the selection.

Baird had just been fired at the end of May, and while an agreement was in place to make Moore (then an assistant with Atlanta) the new GM, he stayed on with the Braves to help them through the draft. And so the Royals were left with interim Muzzy Jackson to call the shots before Moore took over on June 8—after all the picking had been done.

What’s crazy is that the ’06 draft turned out to be one of the best since the turn of the century, so it was a tough one to whiff on, even sans GM. Here’s a rundown of five players who went in Round 1 that the Royals passed on:

By comparison, Hochevar (currently out with Tommy John surgery) has accumulated 2.5 WAR in his seven seasons with K.C. Making matters worse, the big right-hander had been the Dodgers‘ first pick the season before, but Hochevar failed to sign and headed to independent ball for a year, thus teeing up the bust for the Royals.

19. After having never lost 100 games in a season in franchise history from 1969 through 2001, the Royals wound up with—count ’em—four triple-digit-loss seasons in five years from 2002 through 2006.

(Hey, we told you earlier it was going to go from bad to worse.)

20. As for that 2003 team that managed to avoid the 100-loss distinction, it wasn‘t anywhere near as bad as the others during that five-year stretch, but it was more disappointing.

Managed by former big league catcher Tony Pena in his first full season as a skipper, K.C. surprised everyone by winning its first nine games to open the year and 16 of its first 19.

Alas, that only served to up the excitement and raise expectations that ultimately would crash when the Royals entered the All-Star break with a seven-game lead in the AL Central—only to watch it evaporate by Aug. 1, just two weeks later.

21. A bizarre—and extremely scary—incident occurred in a game between the Royals and White Sox on Sept. 19, 2002, at Comiskey Park when two bare-chested fans ran onto the field and attacked Kansas City first base coach Tom Gamboa.

”I had my hands on my hips, and I was looking at the next batter,” Gamboa said afterward via the The New York Times. ”I felt like a football team had hit me from behind. Next thing I knew, I’m on the ground trying to defend myself.”

The Royals bench quickly emptied to come to Gamboa‘s aide as he tried to fight off his attackers, William Ligue Jr. and his son, William III, who was only 15 at the time. The two were arrested.

22. As noted earlier, the Royals are a small-market organization, so they only have so many financial bullets to fire. In 2004, they wasted one by inking Juan Gonzalez for $4.5 million.

OK, so it wasn‘t a ton of money to spend on a former two-time MVP coming off a 24-homer, 70-RBI half-season with the Texas Rangers, but it was a big gamble on a 34-year-old who had played just 152 games the previous two years.

Unsurprisingly, Juan Gone just couldn’t get or stay healthy. He was initially considered day-to-day after straining his back early on, only to wind up going—and staying—on the disabled list.

He played his final game for K.C. on May 21, so the Royals got all of five homers, 17 RBI and 33 games—and a bad back—for their $4 million.

23. Ken Harvey was a fifth-round pick by the Royals in 1999 who split his four seasons in Kansas City between first base and designated hitter. Given his defensive ability (or lack thereof), the team should have just kept him at DH.

Then again, that would have deprived us of Harvey’s various misadventures in the field from 2003 through 2005, including the time he was hit in the back by a relay throw from right field to home plate because he was in a crouch watching the runner come in from third.

Or this dandy:

24. In 2005, the Royals endured a seemingly ceaseless 19-game losing streak that is the longest in the team’s 46 seasons, as well the longest in the majors since the wild-card era began in 1995.

When the slide began, on July 28, Kansas City was 38-64, and when it ended on Aug. 20—more than three full weeks later!—the club was 39-82.

During the course of what was already a tough time, the Royals suffered through a particularly brutal three games from Aug. 6-9 in which they lost 16-1 and 11-0 to the Athletics and then blew a 7-2 ninth-inning lead against the Cleveland Indians by allowing 11 runs and ultimately falling 13-7.

Sheesh, no wonder it wound up being the worst season in franchise history.

25. Merely four years apart, two of Kansas City’s prized young pitchers, Zack Greinke and Danny Duffy, briefly stepped away from baseball and contemplated quitting the game.

Greinke, the team’s top pick in 2002, left spring training in 2006 to deal with his anxiety and bouts with depression. Meanwhile, a third-rounder in 2007, Duffy also walked away during spring training in 2010 after suffering an elbow injury that was expected to keep him out until that May.

Fortunately for the Royals, both pitchers found their way back to the club and have had success since, including Greinke‘s Cy Young season in 2009 and Duffy’s rotation-best 2.32 ERA this season.

26. The seasons of 2009 and 2010 were unofficially known as the “Yuni Years”—as in Yuniesky Betancourt, the awful shortstop whose ineptitude served as a muse of sorts for Posnanski.

Yet, somehow Betancourt, despite the worst WAR (-1.8) in MLB over those two years, convinced K.C.’s coaching staff that he was worth starting at short for 221 games.

Even better, after trading him to the Brewers in December 2010, the Royals’ decision-makers actually (gasp) brought him back for another go in 2012! His lifetime triple-slash line for Kansas City finished at .248/.276/.395—you know, provided the team doesn’t think a third time will be the charm.

27. When Gil Meche, dealing with a right-shoulder injury, chose to retire in January 2011 and forfeit the final year of his five-year, $55 million contract—which called for $12 million—it was an honorable decision but also an odd one. Odd, not as in bad but unusual, as Tyler Kepner of the The New York Times wrote:

When I signed my contract, my main goal was to earn it. Once I started to realize I wasn’t earning my money, I felt bad. I was making a crazy amount of money for not even pitching. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I didn’t want to have those feelings again…

This isn’t about being a hero—that’s not even close to what it’s about. It’s just me getting back to a point in my life where I’m comfortable. Making that amount of money from a team that’s already given me over $40 million for my life and for my kids, it just wasn’t the right thing to do.

After leading the AL with back-to-back 34-start seasons in his first two years with Kansas City, Meche managed just 32 across 2009-10 before he hung ’em up. And repaid the Royals.

28. May 16, 2011, really wasn‘t Vin Mazzaro‘s day. Like, really, really wasn‘t his day.

The right-hander came into a game against the Indians to start the third inning, but he didn‘t provide a lick of relief, registering the following line: 2.1 innings, 11 hits, 3 walks and 14 runs. Yes: F-O-U-R-T-E-E-N.

Here’s the recap of the wreckage from Dick Kaegel of MLB.com:

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Mazzaro is the first pitcher since 1900 to give up 14 or more runs in fewer than three innings.

According to SABR, the last pitcher to allow 14-plus runs in fewer than three innings was Ed Doheny of the New York Giants on June 29, 1899. Doheny was rocked for 17 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Mazzaro also established a Royals record for most runs given up by a pitcher in one game. The previous mark was 11, by Brian Bannister on June 12, 2010, at Cincinnati; Luke Hudson on Aug. 13, 2006, at Cleveland; and Zack Greinke on June 10, 2005, at Arizona.

29. Remember when we said we were done with the all-too-frequent trades involving the Royals jettisoning in-their-prime outfielders for nada? Yeah, we lied.

Looking to solidify a shaky rotation prior to the 2012 season, the Royals traded 27-year-old Melky Cabrera—coming off a breakout 2011 in which he hit .305 with 102 runs, 18 homers, 87 RBI and 20 steals—to the San Francisco Giants for pitchers Jonathan Sanchez and Ryan Verdugo.

Well, Verdugo made one horrible start in ’12, giving up six runs on eight hits in 1.2 innings in what has been his only big league outing to date.

And Sanchez, who actually had a decent track record of success but was also wildly inconsistent, flamed out so fast (7.76 ERA, 2.04 WHIP in 12 starts) that K.C. flipped him to the Colorado Rockies by that July.

Meanwhile, Cabrera followed up his big ’11 with an even bigger (albeit tainted) 2012, becoming an All-Star that summer and winning MVP honors of that game*, which just so happened to be played in—you guessed it—Kansas City.

*One of the unfortunate lasting memories from the 2012 All-Star festivities was the incessant booing of the Yankees’ Robinson Cano by Royals fans during the Home Run Derby because, as captain of the AL side, he didn‘t pick Billy Butler.

What started out as a silly act pretty quickly turned obnoxious and even a little vitriolic—at a time when the entire baseball-watching world was focused on Kansas City. Fueling the fervor was the fact that Cano, who had won the derby the previous year with his father pitching to him, went without a long ball.

Since that event, the “slugging” Butler has hit exactly 37 homers: 13 in the second half of 2012, 15 in 2013 and nine this year. Maybe Cano was right after all.

As bad, frustrating and embarrassing as these 29 mishaps have been over the past 29 years, they’re a little less so for the Royals and their fans, now that the team finally has made it back to October.

And who knows, if the Royals pull off some postseason miracle and win it all—just like they did in 1985—everyone will look back on these and laugh.

Not that some don’t elicit a chuckle already, anyway.

Statistics are accurate through Sept. 26 and are courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There will be an air of royalty to the 2014 MLB playoffs. 

The Kansas City Royals clinched a spot in the postseason with a 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox. Jeremy Guthrie was brilliant on the mound, and the three runs the offense pushed across in the top of the first inning were enough to carry the team to victory.

The MLB offered its congratulations to the squad:

The team’s official Twitter account had a highlight of the first run, courtesy of Nori Aoki’s early triple:

It was the pitching that was the big storyline Friday, though. Andy McCullough of The Kansas City Star pointed out how dependable Guthrie has been this season:

The Royals gave fans a glimpse at his final stat line in the clinching game:

As with any postseason-clinching victory, it was time to party in the immediate aftermath. Thankfully for the Royals, it appeared their fans came to the Windy City to do just that, via Jeffrey Flanagan of Fox Sports Kansas City:

It wasn’t just the Kansas City fans in Chicago who were ready to party, as the Kansas City Police pointed out:

The team provided a look at the celebratory tools, while Chris Fickett of The Kansas City Star captured the team running onto the field after the final out:

ESPN Stats & Info and Sports Illustrated pointed out how long the celebration has been in the making:

Fickett, the Royals and MLB continued to give a look at the celebration after the victory:

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the game and the celebration afterward was the presence of visiting Royals fans in the crowd. Here is a look at the cheering after the game, from the MLB and the Royals themselves:

This picture from the Royals captured the excitement for the fans who made the trip to Chicago:

The playoffs are next for Kansas City, but it remains to be seen whether the Royals will be a wild-card team or the American League Central champion. Manager Ned Yost seemed pleased just to have the postseason opportunity, via Daniel Kramer of MLB.com:

The most important thing is, teams have won the World Series from the Wild Card round. So you’ve got to get in. Everybody else is going home. If it’s a one-game playoff, we’ll take the one-game playoff. Whatever gives us the opportunity to continue on is important. It’s opportunity, is what it is. It’s not consolation.

While Royals fans are certainly fired up for the upcoming playoffs, Friday was a night for celebration.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Justin Verlander has struggled this year.  Actually, that’s a bit generous. 

Sugarcoating aside, he has been terrible.  His current 4.54 ERA is the second-highest of his career, and his strikeout total is at its lowest since 2006, his first full season in the big leagues.  His 1.40 WHIP is tied for the highest in his career, and he just hasn’t been the dominant ace he once was.

However, maybe that ace is starting to come back as the games become more important.  He pitched a gem two starts ago against the Royals, the Tigers’ biggest AL Central competitors, and outdueled White Sox ace Chris Sale on Wednesday.

In that start against Chicago, he was masterful.  He allowed seven hits, struck out six and did not walk a batter while pitching eight innings for only the second time all season.

Verlander’s recent performance is almost a carbon copy of last year’s.  He was not quite as bad in 2013 as he has been so far this year, but it seems that he is once again flipping a switch as October nears.

In last year’s postseason, Verlander took the team on his back, leading the Tigers past the Athletics with two stellar outings in the ALDS.  He started Games 2 and 5, and his two fantastic outings in those games brought back memories from his Cy Young-winning 2012 season. 

In Game 2, he struck out 11 in seven scoreless innings of work, but the Tigers couldn’t muster any offense and lost 1-0.  Then, with the season on the line in a winner-take-all Game 5, Verlander prolonged the season with 10 more strikeouts in eight scoreless innings, catapulting Detroit into the next round.

He turned in a similar effort in Game 3 of the ALCS, but the one run he gave up in eight innings was enough to get him the loss as the Tigers once again came out on the short side of a 1-0 game.

2014 has been eerily similar.  He started the season strong but ran into a wall in the second month of the season.  He pitched poorly in May, June and July, amassing ERAs of 5.54, 6.82 and 4.78, respectively.

He started pitching better in August, but then a debacle against the Pirates saw him pitch only one inning, give up five runs and then injure himself running to first after a sacrifice bunt.  That fluke injury forced him to miss some time, and it seemed like he and his team had both hit rock bottom.

Even after acquiring David Price from the Rays in a stunning trade minutes before the trade deadline, the Tigers were out of first place and in danger of missing the playoffs altogether.  The bullpen was so bad that some speculated about the Tigers inserting Verlander into the closer’s role for the postseason.

The Tigers decided to stick with Verlander in the rotation, and he has made good on that trust.  The Tigers are 6-1 in Verlander’s seven starts since returning to the rotation, and he has gotten the victory in five of those.

Detroit’s magic number is now three, meaning if a combination of Tigers wins and Royals losses reaches three, the Tigers clinch the division and avoid the treacherous one-off Wild Card Game.

If Verlander is right, which I think he is now, the Tigers are going to be scary over the course of a five- or seven-game playoff series.

An overpowering pitching rotation of Max Scherzer, David Price, Verlander and Rick Porcello will be very tough for any opponent, and the offense is pretty good as well.

Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez are two of the best hitters in the entire MLB, and the additions of Ian Kinsler and Rajai Davis give the lineup a dynamic it didn’t have last year.  For example, when Davis stole his 35th base of the season in Wednesday’s win against the White Sox, it matched the number of steals the Tigers stole as a team in 2013.

In last year’s playoff run that ended in the ALCS against the Red Sox, the offense did not have anything even resembling a running threat, forcing the Tigers to play base-to-base baseball, basically waiting for an extra-base hit or a string of hits to score runs.

Now, though, they have Davis, who has over 300 stolen bases in his career.  He has been one of the league’s most prolific base stealers over the past six years; he has averaged 42 steals over those years.  You can guarantee that if the Tigers are locked in a close game, Brad Ausmus will have the confidence to give Davis the green light to get into scoring position.

Back to pitching, the bullpen has been disastrous for most of the season.  The Tigers signed Joe Nathan in the offseason, but his ERA has been around five all year.  They acquired Joakim Soria at the deadline for some late-inning help, and Anibal Sanchez has returned from the disabled list as a reliever as well.

However, Verlander might be the X-factor.  Which one will show up: the terrific Verlander or the one with a 4.50 ERA?

If last year is any indication, Verlander will turn it on and be an ace.  If he can pitch at the same level he did in last year’s postseason, the Tigers have to be dark-horse candidates to advance all the way to the World Series.

The American League is loaded with the likes of the Angels, Orioles, and A’s, but with Verlander at his best, the Tigers have three Cy Young-caliber pitchers to go along with one of the best offenses in the league. 

It’s going to come down to Verlander, and if he is up to the task, watch out for the Detroit Tigers.

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For most of the 2014 season, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners has been the undisputed choice to win his second AL Cy Young award. 

But Corey Kluber has produced an incredible second half for the Cleveland Indians, making the decision for voters much more difficult than anticipated.

Both pitchers are deserving of the award.

Felix leads the AL in ERA (2.07), WHIP (0.91), quality starts (27) and batting average against (.200). In a 16-start stretch from May 18 to August 11, Felix pitched no less than seven innings and allowed no more than two runs.

At the All-Star break no other candidate could touch Felix, especially not Kluber.

Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs compared first-half WAR for both players in a recent article. Felix’s 5.0 WAR in the first half was almost an entire two wins higher than Kluber’s 3.3 WAR. The Mariners’ ace was running away with the Cy Young while Kluber was barely on the radar.

Yet Kluber has managed to produce an equally remarkable second half.

The Indians’ right-hander posted a 3.7 WAR after the All-Star break, over two wins better than Felix’s 1.2 WAR. While Felix failed to maintain his record-breaking form, Kluber posted a 1.88 second-half ERA to emerge as a dark horse candidate to challenge King Felix.

As the season enters its final weekend, Kluber has actually surpassed Felix in FanGraphs WAR (7.0 to 6.1). Kluber actually leads all MLB pitchers in WAR, even than the great Clayton Kershaw.

Kluber has made his case with prodigious strikeout numbers. With his devastating curveball, he leads the MLB in strikeouts. Opposing hitters are hitting just .094 against his curve while striking out 118 times. Although Felix leads Kluber in ERA by almost half a run, Kluber has been able to bridge the gap due to these strikeout numbers. 

Voters love to use ERA when making their decisions on the Cy Young. But Fielding Independent Pitching has become a more reliable statistic when evaluating a pitcher’s performance. FIP takes into just those elements a pitcher can directly control (strikeouts, walks and home runs) while assuming league averages for elements more influenced by chance (hits, sequencing of those hits, etc.).

Felix has benefited from playing in a pitcher0friendly ballpark at Safeco Field while Kluber has needed to be much sharper at the more-volatile Progressive Field. 

Then there is the defense.

Kluber has posted an incredible pitching season while playing with the very worst defense in MLB, while Seattle has been the third-best defensive team in baseball. Felix has been a recipient of stellar defense, making all the difference in the Seattle ace’s lower ERA. Due to these differences, it is no surprise to find Kluber as the AL leader in FIP.

Not to take anything away from Felix, but to view the AL Cy Young race as a foregone conclusion would be a mistake. Felix started fast, but Kluber has caught up to him down the stretch. Others are noticing Kluber’s momentum. 

But how will the voters cast their ballots?

It really should come down to a very slim margin for whomever wins the award. But I expect Felix to take home the honors. But why? Yes, he has produced a fantastic season filled with jaw-dropping stats, but so has Kluber. So what will be the difference?

Ultimately voters gravitate towards lower ERA numbers, which Hernandez has. He also is the more recognizable star so his season has been a bigger blip on the national radar than Kluber’s has.

Felix Hernandez deserves the AL Cy Young. But so does Corey Kluber. There should be no problem with either winning the award. Hopefully, the voters acknowledge the equally fantastic season of the less-known Kluber, allowing the best man to win the coveted award. 

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When David Price takes the mound Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox, he’ll have a lot riding on his left arm, namely the postseason hopes of the Detroit Tigers, whose trade for the former Cy Young winner initially looked like a coup that would put the organization over the top down the stretch and in the playoffs.

But a funny thing happened on the way to October. Instead of soaring, the Tigers stumbled immediately, going 10-12 in the 22 games following the move.

That allowed the Kansas City Royals to climb from four games back in the AL Central to three up. Entering play Tuesday, Detroit (86-70) is just one game ahead of the Royals (85-71), who haven’t made it to the playoffs since 1985.

Just as unexpected, Price, who was acquired to be part of the World Series solution for a club that has advanced to two AL Championship Series sandwiched around their 2012 trip to the Fall Classic, wound up becoming part of the problem.

Price’s overall numbers with Detroit, including a 4.09 ERA and 1.22 WHIP, aren’t as good as they were with the Tampa Bay Rays. On top of that, the left-hander has been especially bad the past five times out.

Since Aug. 27, the 29-year-old has allowed 20 runs on a whopping 45 hits for a 5.81 ERA and 1.68 WHIP in 31.0 innings. Detroit has lost three of those games.

Among those outings was the unmitigated disaster against the New York Yankees, in which Price was treated like a pinata while permitting—count ’em—nine straight hits and registering nary a swing and miss during an eight-run third inning.

Price called it “probably the worst game I’ve ever had in my life,” according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.

And just last Wednesday, Sept. 17, Price caved again, surrendering five runs on eight hits and three walks over 5.2 frames against the lowly Minnesota Twins, only the last-place team in the Central. Not to mention, he lost the lead not once but twice in the game.

“I’m a better pitcher than this,” Price told Patrick Donnelly of MLB.com following that 8-4 loss.

Not exactly how this was supposed to play out when Detroit obtained Price at the July 31 trade deadline in a blockbuster three-team deal that sent left-hander Drew Smyly and infield prospect Willy Adames from the Tigers to the Tampa Bay Rays, center fielder Austin Jackson to the Seattle Mariners and infielder Nick Franklin to the Rays.

As if to make Price’s subpar performance so far sting even more, Smyly pitched wonderfully in seven starts for his new club, posting a 1.70 ERA and 0.76 WHIP before being shut down in early September with the Rays out of contention and looking toward 2015.

It seemed silly at the time of the trade and still does somewhat given Price’s pedigree and history, but it’s fair to at least raise the possibility that the Tigers might have been better off to now if they’d simply stuck with Smyly all along.

Quite possibly, with Smyly starting instead of Price, Detroit would have a larger lead on the Royals right now because the 25-year-old unquestionably has been better than Price since the swap, leading him in ERA, WHIP and Baseball Reference’s version of wins above replacement (WAR)—and not by small margins, either.

Then again, Price’s 2.68 fielding independent pitching (FIP) actually is better than Smyly‘s 3.07 within the same time frame. That speaks to the 2012 Cy Young winner’s poor luck with balls in play (.328 BABIP) and leaving runners stranded (67.7 left-on-base percentage).

All of which is to say that while Price’s performance has left something to be desired, he’s actually not pitching as poorly as some of the surface statistics indicate. He’s also under team control through the 2015 season, so the risk that comes with a two-month rental doesn’t apply.

Plus, Price does have postseason and big-game experience, having thrown 32 October innings across nine games (four starts) since 2008.

On one hand, Price’s 5.06 ERA in the playoffs doesn’t instill much confidence. On the other hand, well, there’s his win-or-go-home Game 163 gem last year:

As for Smyly? The third-year hurler has seven frames on his postseason resume but no starts. In all likelihood, he once again would have been relegated to the bullpen in the playoffs.

If the Tigers ultimately make it to October for the fourth straight season—and they still control their fate—then Price has a chance to wipe the slate clean and make up for his mediocre showing to date.

With a shutdown start or two in a big spot, Price would put all of his early struggles with the Tigers behind him.

And that’s a good possibility, considering this is a pitcher who not only has been among the best in baseball for a handful of seasons now but also has had his share of success in big spots.

“We’re hoping that with the importance of the next couple of starts that [Price] has, the adrenaline helps and he’s like he was earlier,” manager Brad Ausmus told Donnelly after Price’s latest disappointing turn against Minnesota last time out.

Of course, the flip side is Price pitches poorly yet again Tuesday, the Tigers fail to solidify a postseason spot even heading into the final day of the regular season—and you-know-who is lined up to start that game against the Twins in the middle of one of the worst stretches of his seven-year career.

That would be quite the scenario, and not at all the kind the Tigers thought they would have to get through when they landed Price.

Statistics are accurate through Sept. 22 and are courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

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There are guys who hit home runs, and then there are home run hitters. For most of his superlative career, the Detroit Tigers‘ Miguel Cabrera has landed squarely in the second category.

He’s a beast, a masher. A hitter opposing pitchers genuinely fear. A hitter you assume is going to launch one every time he takes a cut.

Like the cut he took Monday night against the Minnesota Twins. Facing right-hander Casey Fien in the top of the ninth with the Tigers up 7-6 following a Torii Hunter go-ahead home run, Cabrera added some insurance with an arcing liner over the left-center field wall. 

The result? An 8-6 Detroit victory.

It’s the kind of at-bat Tigers fans have come to expect from Cabrera. During a recent rough patch, though, those expectations weren’t being met.

Between Aug. 3 and Aug. 31, a span of 27 games, Cabrera didn’t hit a single home run. Overall, he managed just one blast in the entire month of August.

That’s after he belted 44 home runs in each of the last two seasons, winning a Triple Crown and a pair of MVP trophies in the process.

Manager Brad Ausmus confirmed to MLB.com‘s Jason Beck that Cabrera has a bone spur in his right ankle, which could account at least partly for the fizzling pop. 

As John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press put it:

In the first half of the season, Cabrera hit a lot of long drives that came down just short of the fence. The thought was that he was still recovering from his offseason core muscle repair surgery, and that in the second half he’d be strong enough that those long drives would start going over the fence. Instead, the opposite has happened.

Needless to say, anxiety was high in the Motor City. The Miggy worry meter was teetering between “elevated” and “freak out.”

Then, just like that, the calendar flipped, and so did Cabrera’s power switch.

He smacked a pair of home runs Sept. 1 in Cleveland. He repeated the feat Sept. 6 at home against the San Francisco Giants. In all, Cabrera hit five home runs in a seven-game stretch and has six in September.

The Tigers, not coincidentally, are winning. Detroit, 84-66, is 10-4 in September and has reclaimed first place in the American League Central, carrying a 1.5-game lead over the upstart Kansas City Royals into play Tuesday.

As they race toward October, the Tigers would like nothing more than a red-hot, long-ball-launching Cabrera leading the charge.

“What I did was fine,” Cabrera told Brian Dulik of MLB.com after his Sept. 1 outburst against the Indians, which came as part of a 12-1 Detroit victory. “But we won, so that makes it even better.”

Cabrera has been more than fine this season. Even with his August swoon, his .313 batting average, 23 home runs and 102 RBI put him at least on the edge of the American League MVP conversation.

But with his recent power surge, the Tigers must be thinking big things.

This is the team that made the deal of the deadline, netting ace left-hander David Price in a blockbuster three-team swap. The team that walked up to the doorstep of glory in 2006 and 2012, only to fall just short.

Cabrera is still noticeably hobbled. As he rounded third Monday following his back-to-back jack, he stepped gingerly, slowing to a shuffling jog. 

And the Tigers still have question marks, including in the starting rotation, despite the Price trade.

But Cabrera returning to form, provided the ankle cooperates, could propel Detroit to the front of the AL playoff scramble. A locked-in recent Triple Crown winner can mask a lot of flaws.

Either way, it’s got to be nice for the Tigers faithful to see Miggy being Miggy. And swinging like a bona fide home run hitter.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. 

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Earlier this month, the Detroit Tigers expanded their playing roster with the annual September call-ups. This coterie of youngsters has arrived in Motown at the back end of Detroit’s roller-coaster season. They may play an important role, as the Tigers are currently looking up in both the division and wild-card standings and chasing their fourth consecutive berth in the postseason.

The newcomers arrived in two waves, with the first batch coming on September 1:

The second installment landed in Detroit a day later:

Undoubtedly, starting pitcher Kyle Lobstein has made the most profound impact on the team. The 6’3” southpaw has been inserted into Detroit’s rotation, with Anibal Sanchez continuing to sit out with a pectoral injury.

Expectations were not high for Lobstein upon his arrival in Detroit. His numbers at Toledo promised little for a step up to the highest level: 9-11, 4.03 ERA, 1.48 WHIP.

Speaking on 1130 WDFN The Fan, MLive’s James Schmehl did not have high hopes for the tall lefty:“Lobstein, in my eyes, is not a starting pitcher in the major leagues. I think eventually he could potentially be a long reliever, but I don’t see him as a starting pitcher.”

However, the Arizona native has defied those low expectations since donning a Tigers uniform. In four appearances, including three starts, Lobstein’s numbers have been impressive: 1-0, 2.78 ERA, 1.19 WHIP. Detroit has won each of his starts, which have all been crucial.

Arguably, he has been Detroit’s best starter during this span. Max Scherzer (5.09), David Price (7.13), Rick Porcello (5.09) and Justin Verlander (4.79) all have higher ERAs and suffered at least one defeat in their last three starts.

It should be noted that only Lobstein’s last two appearances came after his September call-up. His first and second outings came during his initial stint in late August, before he was briefly optioned back to Toledo.

Recent reports indicate that Sanchez is making progress in his recovery and may soon return to Detroit. If so, Lobstein will likely be transferred to the bullpen. Until that happens, he remains a key member of Detroit’s rotation.

Apart from Lobstein, the other new additions have so far spent limited time on the diamond.

Detroit’s regular starters are not likely to be rested while the team is in the thick of the playoff hunt. Experimentation with youth may be a feature of non-contending teams in the weeks to come, but the Tigers will probably offer only occasional cameos to their call-ups.

So far, they have made favourable impressions when given opportunities.

Outfielders Tyler Collins and Steven Moya are each 2-for-4, including a three-run homer from Collins in Detroit’s 12-1 rout of Cleveland last Thursday.

Highly touted catcher James McCann made his first big league start over the weekend against San Francisco. The 24-year-old went 0-for-3 but hit the ball hard and looked solid defensively.

Hernan Perez has made a solitary start at shortstop and has been on base twice in four plate appearances.

The only hiccup for the position players has been Collins’ missed catch on a fly ball in his only start.

On the pitching side, Kyle Ryan and Buck Farmer—who made their starting debuts in August—have each made a single appearance out of the bullpen in September. These outings were both in mop-up roles during last Friday’s 8-2 defeat to the Giants.

Apart from Lobstein, the September rookies will continue to see only snippets of playing time in the season’s final three weeks.

High-stakes baseball should compel manager Brad Ausmus to use his best 10 players day in and day out. However, the rookies will add depth to the team and be used in strategic matchups. For instance, Ryan will be used to ice opposing left-handed hitters, particularly when Blaine Hardy and Phil Coke need a break.

Moya and Collins are also likely to feature as pinch hitters. Detroit is a right-hand-dominant lineup, so this pair of lefties could be brought off the bench to face some right-handed pitchers. While this is not the most glorified of roles, history shows that pinch hits from unlikely sources can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing big games.

Many will remember Francisco Cabrera—an unknown player at the time—stroking the game-winning hit for the Atlanta Braves in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. Dramatic situations like these may not emerge for the Tigers, but their bench players will get the chance to deliver at some stage.

It must be remembered that, while their game time is limited in the interim, these September call-ups are Detroit’s players of the future. Glimpses of their talents this month promise much in the years to come.

But don’t consider them “cheerleaders only” just yet.

If Detroit manages to leapfrog the Kansas City Royals and/or the Seattle Mariners into the playoffs, one or two may join the October party. The ride for this group has only just begun.

All stats in this article are courtesy of MLB.com.

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The final month of the major league season is upon us, and as we learned last season with the implementation of two wild-card berths in each league, there are more teams contending for playoff spots in September than ever before.

The first weekend is already underway, featuring several series that will impact the playoff races. And there will be meaningful meetings all the way through the final week of the season thanks to that second wild card and some tight divisional races.

Scoreboard watching should be an acquired skill in these final three-plus weeks, and we will fill your datebook with the most crucial from here on out, starting with the month’s first weekend.

Begin Slideshow

The last time the Kansas City Royals made the playoffs, Back to the Future was the No. 1 movie in America.

Looking back, KC fans probably wish they’d shoved Marty McFly aside, hopped in Doc Brown’s DeLorean and set the coordinates for 2014.

Because only now, 29 excruciating years later, are the Royals finally poised for a return trip to the postseason.

With their 1-0 win over the New York Yankees Friday night, coupled with the Detroit Tigers‘ 8-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants, the Royals increased their lead in the American League Central to two games. 

There’s still time for a meltdown. But the safe money is on Kansas City breaking its protracted playoff drought rather than the faithful’s hearts. 

The goal isn’t simply to make the playoffs, though. It’s to make some noise once they get there. To do that, the Royals will need a few experienced big-game players to step up.

Those players are in short supply in the Royals’ locker room.

Only four members of Kansas City’s roster have performed under the bright October lights: second baseman Omar Infante, outfielder Raul Ibanez and pitchers Wade Davis and James Shields.

The likeliest candidate to assume big-game stud status is the last name on that list.

In fact, Shields flashed his credentials Friday night against the Yankees, tossing 8.1 scoreless frames, allowing three hits and striking out six.

“I think that is by far the best game he has thrown all year,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). “He was surgical with his stuff. He had everything going.”

Overall, Shields has posted a 3.23 ERA with 156 strikeouts in 200.1 innings pitched.

The 32-year-old right-hander doesn’t boast a sterling postseason resume. He owns a 4.98 ERA in six playoff appearances, all with the Tampa Bay Rays.

The point, though, is that he’s been there. He’s endured the pressure, felt the eyeballs of the nation searing into his arm.

When Kansas City dealt for Shields in December 2012, sending top prospects Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi to Tampa Bay, it was a win-now move—a rarity in KC.

The Royals didn’t win right away, at least not the division. They did, however, enjoy their first winning season since 2003 and stayed in the hunt deep into September. 

“I helped out a lot more with the run we had at the end of last season,” Shields told The Topeka Capital-Journal‘s Kevin Haskin. “These guys know how to win big baseball games now and what it takes to win games all the way to the end. We’ve just got to stick to our process, stick to what we’re doing and have fun with it.”

That’s a great line, and there’s truth in it. But Shields surely knows that the burden is on his shoulders to be that guy in the clubhouse—the one with the swagger, the knowledge and the poise.

As Haskin puts it:

Does [postseason experience] matter? It could. Maybe when pressure mounts in September to secure a postseason berth. Or, during the postseason when players must cope with additional attention — from media, from fans, and from family and friends looking to obtain tickets.

The Royals still have to qualify before they worry about hooking up their long-lost uncle with seats. They’re getting close, though. The brass ring is within reach.

“We never had a winning record around here since what? Forever?” outfielder Jarrod Dyson asked rhetorically, per Haskin.

Maybe not that long, Jarrod. But you’d need a time machine to get back there. 

Or you could just follow James Shields. He knows the way.

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All of the pitching luxuries the Detroit Tigers seemed to have four weeks ago have systematically evaporated and been replaced by the first stages of panic.

When the Tigers maneuvered a trade for David Price at the non-waiver deadline, they were quickly anointed American League Central champions, champions of the league by some and champions of everything by a few others. The expectations for a team with the game’s most prolific hitter and three former Cy Young Award winners in its rotation were too high to measure.

Then, they came crashing down as the calendar did away with August and the Kansas City Royals did away with Detroit’s lead in the AL Central division.

Now, the Tigers are happy to get anything in the realm of positive as they chase the once-buried Royals and a wild-card berth. Justin Verlander’s start Friday night against the Chicago White Sox qualifies as positive, and if the Tigers are going to live up to any expectations created for the coming October, they will surely need more of this from their former-ace-turned-middle-man.

Verlander turned in seven innings and struck out eight, and despite giving up nine hits, he surprisingly allowed only a single run Friday night. It was a flashback to the Verlander of 2012—the 2011 Verlander was on another planet and probably would have made the entire White Sox lineup disappear with some sort of ray gun. 

justin is verlandering tonight. #tigers.

— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) August 30, 2014

The Tigers are desperate for those kinds of outings from any starting pitcher right now.

With Anibal Sanchez hitting the disabled list on Aug. 9 and probably out for the season with a pectoral muscle strain, Verlander missing a start a week later because of shoulder inflammation and David Price alternating between front-line starter and mediocre/terrible, the Tigers are in need of someone to step up and provide life to the rotation.

Rick Porcello has provided a boost with a 2.11 ERA over his last seven games—one of those was an extra-inning relief appearance—but the Tigers clearly need more, or else they wouldn’t be staring up at the Royals.

Add that to the fact that the Tigers offense went into a slump earlier this month and Miguel Cabrera has one home run and nine RBI since July 26 and the pitching becomes even more important. 

And because the bullpen is a serious source of worry—its 4.41 ERA this season is the third-worst in the league, per FanGraphs—it will have to be the starting pitcher, once seen as the best in baseball, to carry this team into October. 

As much has Verlander has struggled he’s had 13 starts of 7 innings or more. That’s a huge value to a team with no bullpen.

— Shawn (@DetTigerTalk) August 30, 2014

Verlander’s first start back after missing one because of the shoulder discomfort was not comforting. He went 5.2 innings and gave up four runs. He got the win, pushing his record to 11-11 but raised his ERA up to 4.82 as he continued to stare at his worst season since 2008. Concern reigned all around him and the Tigers.

But in Verlander’s best years, he has had an ability to find a supercharge when he needs it most, whether it was a 101 mph fastball in the eighth inning for a key strikeout or a 130-pitch shutout.

Friday’s outing was in that mold. Another bad start by Verlander and full-on panic might have been setting in in Motown. But after a shaky 23-pitch first inning, Verlander didn’t allow a run, struck out seven and didn’t walk another batter as his fastball lived in the 93-95 mph range.

Once he came out of the game, the bullpen, which has been so maligned all season and in recent games as well, pitched two scoreless innings to make it 15 in a row without allowing a run for that group.

Suddenly, the Tigers are a half-game back of the Royals, and Verlander is providing hope rather than uneasiness, which is exactly what the Tigers need as they try to rebound from a team in distress to one on the attack.

When Verlander was at his best in 2011 and 2012, he was maybe the best in baseball. Expecting a 31-year-old arm with nearly 2,000 major league innings on it to regain that form is unrealistic. The Tigers don’t need that Verlander anyway.

They need him to be rejuvenated from what he has been since May, which is an average starter with average command. Maybe that one-start break will give Verlander that jump-start.

If it does, that is all the Tigers will need to win the Central division and again be a legitimate threat in October.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Milwaukee Brewers beat writer for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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