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Heading into each respective League Championship Series, the Detroit Tigers felt like the team that most needed to capture a World Championship in 2013.

St. Louis is always in October, Boston already completed a worst-to-first comeback story and Los Angeles had the deep pockets and roster full of young or prime-aged stars. The Tigers were the only team in the group without a solid long-term future.

After their ALCS exit, followed by the sudden retirement of Jim Leyland from the bench, the Tigers must avoid a 2014 hangover in order to squeeze one or two more years out of a championship window that could shut soon after.

To be fair, the 2014 Tigers should be really, really good. With a rotation of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, Doug Fister and Rick Porcello all under team control for next season, Detroit will boast one of the best rotations in the game. When healthy, the Miguel Cabrera-Prince Fielder combo is among the biggest and best in any order in baseball. Until someone dethrones that star power atop the AL Central, pencil Detroit in for a postseason trip.

Yet, the window won’t stay open forever. With trade rumors already swirling around Scherzer’s name, Sanchez’s inability to pitch full seasons, the potential of Prince Fielder’s rough 2013 becoming the start of a decline and Miguel Cabrera entering the wrong side of 30, Detroit’s window to finally capture a World Series could be smaller than expected.

In order to maximize that window, the franchise will need to shake off their ALCS loss and make 2014 another big year in the regular-season win column.

Here are four ways they can accomplish that goal.

1. Hire a manager the players want

Jim Leyland’s departure was surprising, but hardly shocking. The legendary manager will turn 69 in December and has been in Detroit since 2006. If the front office and ownership brass wasn’t keeping a short list of names handy for when this day arrived, shame on them.

As Detroit enters the managerial carousel, the most important attribute of their new manager shouldn’t center around philosophy as much as personality. Yes, the Tigers need to find the right fit for this particular group more than they need to unearth a baseball genius.

With a roster that is built to win right now, the interview process conducted by general manager Dave Dombrowski will be among the most interesting subplots to this upcoming offseason. The right candidate can be experienced or inexperienced, well-versed in numbers or poised to lead on gut feeling, there for the long haul or ready for one last contract.

The details won’t matter if he doesn’t mesh with the current 25-man roster and extract a big 2014 season from the group. Some teams have the luxury of letting a manager grow into a job. This Tigers team, attempting to avoid a hangover in 2014, doesn’t have that luxury.

2. Keep Max Scherzer unless an outrageous offer hits the table

According to Joel Sherman of The New York Post, the Tigers are unsure what to do with the likely 2013 AL Cy Young winner. On the surface, it’s hard to imagine Detroit trading away a 29-year-old strikeout king coming off a career year. After winning 21 of 24 regular-season decisions, Scherzer’s 34 strikeouts in 23.1 postseason innings was part of the strength of Detroit’s team. 

On the other hand, Scherzer will be a free agent at the conclusion of the 2014 season. If he posts numbers anywhere close to his 2013 season (214 IP, 2.90 ERA, 240 K), he’ll be in line for a contract in excess of $20 million per season. With Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder all making at least that in annual salary, the Tigers would be pushing $100 million in payroll commitments to four players at the start of the 2015 season.

There’s a precedent for exploring the market, but unless the team is blown away with an offer that makes the team younger, cheaper and still a viable contender in 2014, it doesn’t make sense to remove a dominant pitcher from a rotation gunning for a title.

3. Enter the Jacoby Ellsbury sweepstakes

Yes, offering Ellsbury a contract in excess of $100 million would defeat the purpose of trading Scherzer in order to keep financial flexibility in 2015 and beyond. But the potential to form the best lineup in baseball and keep the Scherzer options open may be too much to pass up for Dombrowski. 

Despite scoring 796 runs, the second-most in baseball behind Boston, Detroit did not receive great production from leadoff hitter Austin Jackson. While his .337 OBP was far from bad, it represented a 40-point dip from his 2012 output, per Baseball-Reference.com. Replacing the enigmatic and inconsistent Jackson atop the order with Ellsbury would give Detroit this potential top five in their everyday lineup:

1. Ellsbury
2. Torii Hunter
3. Miguel Cabrera
4. Prince Fielder
5. Victor Martinez

Furthermore, signing Ellsbury would give their new manager the option of playing either Jackson or Ellsbury in Comerica Park’s spacious left field. With both players possessing elite defensive capability in center field, the Tigers could have three former center fielders, along with Hunter in right, roaming the outfield at once.

Financially, this would likely end Max Scherzer’s tenure in Detroit in the near future. If the team went all-in for 2014, they could afford Ellsbury’s big deal and Scherzer’s final year before free agency. If Dombrowski decided to explore trade options for Scherzer, he could get younger in the rotation or behind the plate via trade.

Before dismissing this idea as hot-stove fodder, remember that Ellsbury is represented by Scott Boras. At the conclusion of the 2012 season, five Boras clients were on Detroit’s active roster. When there’s a need and a relationship between agent and team, big deals can happen.

4. Give the closer job to Drew Smyly

In Detroit, the solution to roster issues is to spend money. When Victor Martinez went down with a torn ACL prior to the 2012 season, owner Mike Ilitch spent $214 million on Prince Fielder’s bat. When right field was a black hole heading into 2013, the team gave a two-year deal to a 37-year-old Torii Hunter.

During the early part of 2013, the bullpen was a sore spot for Detroit. Even though Joaquin Benoit solidified the closing role, the grand slam off the bat of David Ortiz in the ALCS could leave open concerns about him as the closer in 2014.

Instead of spending big money on free-agent relievers like Grant Balfour or Edward Mujica, the team should give Drew Smyly a chance to claim a bigger role in their bullpen.

The following chart compares Smyly with four well-known closers in 2013. Before scrolling down, try to decipher which stat line belongs to the current Tigers reliever: 

If you guessed Player D as Smyly, you know what the Tigers left-hander brings to the table. The rest of the quintet:

Player A: Jonathan Papelbon
Player B: Chris Perez
Player C: Fernando Rodney
Player E: Addison Reed

As you can see, the difference between a proven closer and Smyly isn’t big enough for the Tigers to invest major dollars, especially when Scherzer could be dealt for monetary reasons, into a free-agent arm.

Agree? Disagree? What should the Tigers do this offseason?

Comment below, follow me on Twitter or “like” my Facebook page to talk all things baseball.

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The year still looms there, like the cheese that stands alone.

1984.

It used to be 1968. That was the year that all Tigers fans would reference, sometimes happily, sometimes wistfully, sometimes pessimistically.

It seemed like we waited eons after the Tigers’ 1968 World Series triumph for that feeling to come again. But it was only 16 years, which in retrospect is nothing, really.

And there was plenty of winning between ’68 and ’84 to keep fans from losing too much faith.

The ’68 club was the core of the 1972 team that won the AL East on the next-to-last day of the season. That group got old and fizzled, leading to the lean years of 1974-75.

Mark Fidrych was more than enough of a distraction in 1976 to keep you from remembering that the Tigers were winning just 74 games.

There was another 74-win season in 1977, but we were still blinded by the idea of Fidrych, who kept trying to come back from a shoulder injury.

In 1978, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker made their full-time debuts, and the Tigers began a stretch of .500+ baseball that would run through 1988.

And in there was 1984.

You don’t have to say much beyond the year.

And here we are, some 29 years later, and 1984 is the cheese that stands alone.

There was 1987, when the Tigers rocketed past the Toronto Blue Jays in a frantic final week of baseball that will never be forgotten in these parts. But that Tigers team was spent and fell to the Minnesota Twins in five games in the ALCS.

There was a close call in 1988, but the Tigers couldn’t quite catch the Boston Red Sox in the AL East.

Then came 1989’s bottoming out—a 103-loss season, which saw manager Sparky Anderson take a leave of absence due to exhaustion.

That 1989 season started an ugly stretch of baseball in Detroit—one that continued unabated for 16 years.

Mike Ilitch bought the team in 1992 and after a series of miscues in the front office and in the dugout following Sparky’s departure after the 1995 season, Ilitch hired a young executive named Dave Dombrowski to get the team’s act together. It was November, 2001.

Dombrowski, hired in as the team’s president and CEO, fired GM Randy Smith and manager Phil Garner one week into the 2002 season—after Dombrowski had been on the job for five months.

The Tigers bottomed out once more, to the tune of 119 losses in 2003. Dombrowski knew that was coming. He also knew that the team would be so wretched on the field, the dugout may as well have some flair.

Hence the hiring of Alan Trammell as manager for 2003.

Trammell was the sacrificial lamb—the rookie manager who couldn’t possibly have any success with the joke of a roster that he had been provided. Casey Stengel managed the 1962 Mets, you know. Funny how stupid Casey was when he didn’t have Mantle, Maris, Berra and Ford on his roster.

Trammell had Munson, Halter, Young and Witt.

Tram put in his three years, and was dispatched when Dombrowski‘s roster re-tooling began to take shape.

1984!

That year was even more prominent when Trammell managed the Tigers, because he had Kirk Gibson and Lance Parrish on his coaching staff. It was maybe the only time in big league history when the coaches, even at their ages, were better players than the guys on the 25-man roster.

Tram got the ziggy after 2005, with a clubhouse in disarray and the taste of an 8-24 finish to the year lingering in everyone’s mouths.

Jim Leyland sat at the podium, just announced as the Tigers new manager in October 2005, and he had some unfinished business. His last stint in the dugout, with Colorado in 1999, was a huge disappointment.

“…the last couple of years—and this stuck in my craw a little bit, I did not want my managerial career to end like that,” Leyland said of returning to the role of baseball skipper, as per ESPN.

Leyland had been out of the managing game for six years when Dombrowski reached out to him shortly after firing Trammell.

But at the press conference announcing his hiring by the Tigers, with his friend Dombrowski smiling beside him—the pair won a world title in 1997 in Florida—Leyland declared his vim and vigor were back.

The Tigers were his home town team, to be truthful. Forget the Ohio and Pennsylvania roots. Leyland was a catcher in the low minors for the Tigers in the 1960s. He managed in the Tigers farm system in the 1970s. He was in Lakeland, FL. every spring, brushing shoulders with Kaline, Freehan, Cash and Northrup as Leyland was busy managing a bunch of guys named Morris, Parrish, Whitaker and Trammell.

The Tigers were his team, in his heart.

Leyland was a Pirate for awhile, as we all know. He won some divisions in Pittsburgh—three straight in fact, from 1990-92. The World Series eluded him.

Then it was on to Florida, and an unlikely and unexpected World Series victory in 1997.

The Marlins had a fire sale that began almost right after the parade, and Leyland suffered through a 108-loss season in 1998.

Then it was that year in Colorado, which Leyland is least proud of among all his years managing. He felt he stole a paycheck from the Rockies. He has admitted that he was awful and he was burned out, maybe managing too soon after the Marlins debacle and thus his juices weren’t flowing right.

But he was rested and raring to go when Dombrowski called him and asked him to take over the Tigers.

It may not have been quite the rush to Detroit as Brady Hoke’s was to Ann Arbor when U-M Athletic Director Dave Brandon called Brady and asked him to “come home” to coach the Wolverines, but it didn’t take long for Leyland to say yes to Dombrowski, either.

Leyland said yes so fast, he barely looked at the Tigers roster.

1984!

The cheese still stood alone, but Leyland‘s first year in Detroit seemed to have magic pixie dust sprinkled on it. The Tigers were 76-36 at one point, before stumbling to the finish with a 19-31 record over their final 50 games. Still, it was good enough to qualify for one of Bud Selig’s wild card berths.

The 2006 Tigers made it to the World Series, where cold bats and their pitchers’ inability to field their position resulted in a 4-1 series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

1984!

That magical year of Trammell, Whitaker, Parrish, Morris et al continued to haunt the Tigers.

There was the last week of 2009, which was the 180-degree opposite of that of 1987. The Tigers blew a three-game divisional lead with four games to play, and had to settle for a one-game playoff in Minnesota. It was a marvelous game, but one that makes Tigers fans shudder, and always will.

1984!

In 2011, the Tigers cruised to a divisional title and lost to Nelson Cruz, er, the Texas Rangers, in the ALCS.

1984!

In 2012, the Tigers had to fend off a pesky Chicago White Sox team just to win the division, but made it to another World Series. Again, the bats and the baserunning went cold, and the San Francisco Giants swept the Tigers.

In 2013, the Tigers kept the Cleveland Indians at arm’s length and made it to another LCS—their third straight. But, as Leyland said more than once at his retirement press conference on Monday, the Tigers “let one get away” against the Red Sox. And, he said, it hurt him deeply.

Jim Leyland had eight years as Tigers manager. In only one of them did the team fail to reach the .500 standard. Three times they won their division. Twice they won the American League pennant.

In the 17 years prior to Leyland‘s arrival, the Tigers had exactly one winning record. Four times in those 17 years, they lost more than 100 games.

It rankles some to say that Jim Leyland made baseball relevant again in Detroit. Because, after all, the goal isn’t to be relevant—it’s to win the whole shebang.

It also rankles them because the Tigers’ success since Leyland was hired is largely due to the magic wand of Dombrowski, whose trades and free agent signings have given Leyland the tools any manager needs to be successful. Those tools all have one thing in common: talent.

Any knucklehead could have managed the Tigers with the rosters Leyland was given, and won as much as he did. Right?

We’ll never know for sure, mainly because Leyland isn’t a knucklehead. He’s a grizzled baseball guy who has stood up to the likes of Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla, who has given confidence to the Don Kellys of the world and who has presided over a clubhouse that the players police themselves and which has had hardly any fracturing.

Leyland was like Chuck Daly that way. Leyland expected his players to be grown men and act as such. It has helped that the Tigers have made it a habit of employing players who are pretty darn good guys—men of character and dignity. Carlos Guillen comes to mind.

The team has also had lots of veterans in the clubhouse during Leyland‘s tenure, which doesn’t hurt. It’s why the manager has felt it best to keep out of the players’ sanctuary, for the most part.

Leyland didn’t always push the right buttons, but what manager does? He was slave to pitch counts. He wasn’t particularly aggressive or creative. The move of Jhonny Peralta to left field, when it comes to Leyland, was almost off the charts. It was Mickey Stanley to shortstop-ish.

But the players adored him. And when players like the manager, they tend to play better. That’s a fact.

1984!

It still stands alone. Leyland wasn’t able to rip that year from the wall. It’s 29 years and counting. That gap makes the 1968-84 wait seem like nothing.

Leyland, thanks to the emergence of the Internet and talk radio, was nitpicked and criticized more than any Tigers manager prior to him, combined.

But would we have nitpicked and criticized, if the team was dreadful?

Isiah Thomas, the great Pistons point guard, once said that fans don’t boo nobodies.

Translated: only the irrelevant escape feeling the heat.

The very fact that Jim Leyland, in his eight years managing the Tigers, faced so much criticism, is actually a testament to the man.

Leyland started winning as soon as he got to Detroit, and except for 2008, he never really stopped.

We started caring about the Tigers again when he arrived, and we have never really stopped.

Like him or not, that much is irrefutable.

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It’s impossible to imagine the opening three games of the American League Championship Series playing out any better for the Detroit Tigers. And yet, it’s impossible to imagine the outcomes being any worse.

Despite a third straight unequivocally dominant effort by a starting pitcher, the Tigers somehow trail the Boston Red Sox two games to one.

Justin Verlander, who had thrown 15 scoreless frames in two outings in the division series, was his ho-hum self, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out 10 over eight more near-perfect innings. The right-hander, though, made one mistake and paid for it when Mike Napoli launched a solo home run to left field in the top of the seventh.

That run held up in a 1-0 Red Sox win in Game 3.

Here’s the proof Verlander is, in fact, fallible:

That, by the way, was the first run Verlander allowed since his third-to-last regular-season start, which came on Sept. 18—almost a month ago.

It’s impossible to imagine a scenario in which Tigers starters Anibal Sanchez, Max Scherzer and Verlander—as fantastic as they are—could have been any better than they were in Games 1, 2 and 3.

Consider this stat, from Doug Miller of MLB.com, which was pointed out prior to Game 3:

The Tigers became the first team in postseason history to post three straight games in which their starting pitcher opened with at least five no-hit innings. Verlander pitched 6 2/3 no-hit innings to open Game 5 of the AL Division Series vs. Oakland; Sanchez and relievers Al Alburquerque, Jose Veras, Drew Smyly and Joaquin Benoit no-hit the Red Sox through 8 1/3 innings in Game 1 of the ALCS; and Scherzer opened Game 2 with 5 2/3 no-hit innings.

And in Tuesday’s Game 3, Verlander came within one out of extending that streak to four consecutive games to start out with a no-hitter through five innings.

Although Sanchez, Scherzer and Verlander allowed a total of just six hits and only two runs in 21 combined innings, the Tigers trail 2-1. How is such a thing even possible? Well, while Boston has scored all of seven runs in total through three contests, the Tigers have mustered one fewer, because they have repeatedly failed to get a key hit in a big spot.

Speaking of big spots, in Game 3 alone, Detroit had three instances of a runner on third base, two of which came with fewer than two outs. Each time the lineup failed to get in what would have been the tying run.

The biggest such situation, no doubt, came in the bottom of the eighth inning, by which time the Tigers had managed to get Boston’s John Lackey (6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 8:0 K:BB) out of the game.

With Austin Jackson on third and Torii Hunter on first, up to the dish stepped the very heart of Detroit’s order, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. A fly ball, a slow roller, a mishit poke of a single was all that was needed to knot the game.

Cabrera and Fielder, though, could manage none of those things. Instead, the game’s greatest hitter (admittedly playing at well below 100 percent due to groin and abdominal injuries) and one of its top lefty sluggers struck out on a combined seven pitches, against setup man Junichi Tazawa and closer Koji Uehara, respectively.

Here’s video evidence of that opportunity being whiffed away:

All in all, the Tigers left seven men on base in Game 3 and have tallied 25 through the first three contests. The Red Sox, by comparison, have been so shut down offensively that they’ve left “only” 16 hanging.

And that’s what has to be so scary for Detroit. At some point, one imagines, the Red Sox offense will wake up, or at least start to stir. And when it does, what then? Because, again, as impossible as it is to imagine a scenario in which Detroit’s elite arms pitch any better, it’s also impossible to imagine a scenario in which the Red Sox offense—the best in baseball during the season—could struggle this much.

This is still the same team that triple-slashed .277/.349/.446, posted an MLB-high .795 OPS and scored an MLB-best 5.3 runs per game. In the division series, Boston went .286/.390/.414 for an .803 OPS and 6.5 runs per.

This round? Try .133/.228/.222 for a .450 OPS and 2.3 runs per game.

With at least two games still to play in this ALCS, there’s a pretty good chance that, even against Doug Fister in Game 4 and Sanchez in Game 5, the Red Sox will see some progression to the mean in the form of an uptick in offense.

What’s worse is that Detroit lost its initial outing of this series on its own turf, meaning the Tigers can no longer advance without avoiding a return trip to Boston. The Red Sox might have lost Game 1 at Fenway Park, but they were 53-28 there during the season—that was tops in the AL—and a raucous Boston crowd would only make things that much more challenging for the Tigers.

In more than a few ways, it was fitting that the lights went out, albeit temporarily, at Comerica Park during Game 3. If the Tigers can’t turn the power back on before the Red Sox do, it might be lights out for Detroit. For good.

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After a dramatic two-game split in Boston, the Detroit Tigers return home for a crucial Game 3 in the first of three consecutive games to be played at Comerica Park.

Despite a late-game collapse in which Detroit allowed five Boston runs over the final two innings of Sunday’s Game 2 loss, a combined one-hitter from Tigers’ pitchers in Game 1 gives Detroit a theoretical chance to win the ALCS at home.

Before looking too far ahead, here are four keys for the Tigers in Tuesday’s Game 3:

1. Start strong

Detroit’s starting pitchers have been outstanding during the playoffs, and especially so far in the ALCS. Game 1 and 2 starters Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer combined for 13 scoreless innings, surrendering only two hits while striking out 25 Boston batters.

Game 3 starter Justin Verlander pitched 15 scoreless innings against Oakland in the ALDS, allowing six hits and recording 21 strikeouts in two starts. And no, those numbers don’t come from a video game.

Verlander pitched just once against the Red Sox during the regular season, allowing four runs and seven hits in only five innings pitched on June 23. The Tigers Game 3 starter admitted that despite getting roughed up earlier in the season, his game plan against the top-ranked Red Sox lineup hasn’t changed:

“I think the only way you combat that is be aggressive,” Verlander said in a press conference on Monday. “Throw a lot of strikes and pound the strike zone.”

2. Dirks’ Day 

The starting left fielder for most of the regular season, Andy Dirks will make his first start of the postseason on Tuesday, batting ninth in Jim Leyland’s lineup.

Dirks batted .256 in 131 games during the regular season with 9 home runs and 37 RBIs, but is only 3-for-26 (.115) since September 21. Dirks has the potential to provide a noticeable upgrade at the plate from struggling utilityman Don Kelly, who started Game 2 in left field and is 0-for-4 in the ALCS.

3. Contain Boston’s 1-4 hitters

Not surprisingly, Jacoby Ellsbury, Shane Victorino, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz are huge factors in Major League Baseball’s top scoring offense. But the high percentage of the Red Sox offense coming from their 1-4 hitters is alarming.

Four of Boston’s seven hits on Sunday came from the first four, and five of Boston’s six runs were driven in by Pedroia and Ortiz. Ellsbury, Victorino and Ortiz lead the Red Sox in batting average—batting .375, .333, and .300, respectively—while Pedroia is fifth, batting .261.

The four have scored 19 of the team’s 32 runs during the playoffs and have recorded 18 of 28 RBIs. If Verlander has success against Boston’s first four, the Red Sox will have to rely on Jarrod Saltalamacchia for offense, and the slumping bats of Stephen Drew, Jonny Gomes, Will Middlebrooks, and Mike Napoli.

4. Fix the bullpen

Despite an impressive performance in Game 1, the Tigers bullpen struggled mightily in Game 2, allowing all six Boston runs and ruining a career outing for Scherzer. Tigers relievers Al Alburquerque, Drew Smyly and Joaquin Benoit have postseason ERAs of 9.00, 6.75 and 5.79, respectively.

That should explain everything.

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Just two days ago, the Detroit Tigers blew a 5-0 lead and allowed the Boston Red Sox to pull even in the 2013 ALCS. Bouncing back from that type of devastating defeat is difficult to say the least.

Although Jim Leyland‘s club has the benefit of returning to the friendly confines of Comerica Park for Game 3 on Tuesday, there are several keys Detroit would do well to adhere to.

A positive mindset helps, and Leyland knows not to get too high or too low between how results can change in such a drastic way on a day-to-day basis in the MLB:

Considering the next three games are at home for the Tigers, a victory in the third game would recapture the momentum in their favor and make a 3-2 lead in the series realistic if and when the series heads back to Fenway Park.

Here is an overview of how Detroit can assert its will to overcome its most recent loss and right the ship in its bid to return to the World Series.

A 3rd Great Playoff Performance from Justin Verlander

It never hurts to have an American League Cy Young Award winner as the proverbial “ace in the hole.” Fortunately for Leyland and the Tigers, such is the case in giving Verlander the starting nod in Game 3.

Verlander didn’t have the best season, going 13-12 with a 3.46 ERA, but he’s been lights out this postseason.

The 30-year-old flamethrower fanned 21 hitters in 15 scoreless innings of work and won Detroit the decisive fifth game in the ALDS over the Oakland Athletics.

He should have a big advantage over his counterpart, John Lackey, who posted a 4.32 ERA after the All-Star break.

It’s also worth noting that during the regular season, Lackey went 4-10 with a 4.48 ERA on the road—more than two runs higher than what he posted in Boston.

If Verlander has anywhere close to his best stuff, he should be good for at least seven solid innings and double-digit strikeouts. Both seem feasible given Verlander’s recent form and that the Red Sox have struck out 32 times through the first two ALCS games.

It would be ideal for Verlander to save some strength if possible, since he could be deployed as a reliever later in the series should the Tigers be threatened with elimination.

More Production from Top of the Order

What would help the Tigers a lot is getting more out of their bats in the Nos. 1 and 2 slots from Austin Jackson and Torii Hunter.

The two have combined for a mere seven hits in 59 at-bats—good for a putrid average of about .119. That isn’t ideal when attempting to put together any kind of consistent offense, and it’s surprising for a team that finished second in the MLB in runs this year.

As renowned as Jackson and Hunter are for their defense in the outfield, it is vital that they get on track at the dish.

Hunter at least showed signs of life in smacking a double in Game 1, which put Detroit in position to get insurance in the top of the ninth.

More will be needed to set up studs such as Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Jhonny Peralta for RBI opportunities, though. Perhaps facing a lesser pitcher than Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz in Lackey will help in that regard.

Pitch Around David Ortiz Late

This almost goes without saying, but the Tigers’ Joaquin Benoit essentially had no choice but to pitch to Ortiz with the bases full and two outs in the bottom of the eighth in Game 2.

The resulting grand slam by Big Papi was historic:

Leyland admitted that he made a mistake in laying out the strategy for Benoit, who may have even done better to walk Ortiz in that situation with a 5-1 lead.

Next up was pinch-hitter Mike Napoli, who has but two hits in 17 postseason at-bats. In any event, Detroit is going to avoid pitching to Ortiz in crunch time at all costs this time around.

But that last phrase is not to be taken in the literal sense.

When Leyland sent out Benoit in the eighth, it was the fourth pitcher he’d used for that inning. That’s why a strong outing from Verlander is key, so that the Tigers skipper will not have to reach for his bullpen too much—if at all.

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The dust has finally settled after the Boston Red Sox mounted a glorious comeback against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway in Game 2. The ALCS is officially knotted up at one game apiece as both teams travel to Detroit for three more meetings as they decide who will represent the American League in the 2013 MLB World Series. 

Here’s everything you need to know to catch the rest of the ALCS as baseball continues to roll through the fall: 

What the Tigers Must Do to Move On

The Detroit Tigers have been mostly stellar through the playoffs, especially through the first two games of the ALCS. If the Tigers want to move on they have to keep things going the way they are—for the most part. 

They have to keep relying on their starting pitchers to dominate—which has gone pretty well so far—holding teams scoreless for over 20 innings during the playoffs. Another thing the Tigers must do is keep their bats going, something they’ve done rather well, racking up five runs in a hurry in Game 2 of the ALCS by hitting dingers all over the ballpark. 

What aren’t they doing, though?

Pretty simple; relief pitching.

Take Game 2 of the ALCS as an example. Max Scherzer looked lights-out once again, giving up just one run in seven innings only to be completely let down by the Tigers relief, which came in to give up five runs, including the grand slam given up by Joaquin Benoit in the eighth that really turned the tide in favor of the Red Sox. 

The Tigers have had trouble with relief the last few seasons—most notably with late relief and closers. They haven’t been able to consistently get things going in terms of supporting their starters, but if they do, you’ll see games like Game 1 of the ALCS, when Anibal Sanchez and Tigers’ pitching came extremely close to throwing the first combined no-hitter in postseason history. 

If the Tigers can keep things rolling with their starters, produce at the plate and find an answer in the bullpen they’ll be nearly impossible to defeat on their way to the World Series. 

What the Red Sox Must Do to Move On

If the Red Sox want to continue on to the 2013 MLB World Series as the AL representatives they really just need to do what they did in Game 2—with a few minor changes. Obviously, they need to avoid giving up big innings to the Tigers batters, but if they can keep the big bats in check and keep runners off the basepaths, they’ll find success in the ALCS. 

Their pitching has been solid, giving up just six runs in the ALCS so far—just one in Game 1—and if their starters and relievers can keep up a “bend, don’t break” style of just hoping to contain the Detroit bats, they’ll be on their way to the World Series once again. 

As for batting, the Red Sox need to do follow Game 2’s blueprint. While it took a while to get the bats rolling, if they can keep the score relatively close until the Tigers are forced to bring in their struggling relievers, they’ll have the opportunity to put up big innings, much like what we saw Sunday night. 

The Red Sox need to manage the Tigers’ stacked lineup, trying to break up the big bats and stopping any big innings. Red Sox batters just have to keep getting after Tigers pitching as best as they can until they can get a shot at the shaky Tigers relief squad. Then, they need to make good on their opportunities against Tigers relievers. 

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Prince Fielder smiles a lot. He turns first base into his office, complete with an open-door policy. He chats up base runners, he joshes with umpires. His big face is often lit up with joviality.

Fielder clearly loves his job—so much so that he never takes a day off. Not once has Prince played hooky as a Tiger—and not for quite some time before that as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Since becoming a regular in 2006, Fielder has missed just 13 games—and none since sitting out one in 2010.

The consecutive games-played streak is being honored by Tigers manager Jim Leyland, and as with any such streak, it’s criticized as being perhaps a bit on the selfish side. Baseball is a long grind, and unless you’re the second coming of Cal Ripken Jr., conventional wisdom says you need a day off now and again. Heck, they even said it about Cal himself.

So, Fielder gets his props for playing every day, for smiling, for having fun. His moon face is a fixture at first base—for better and for worse, as the vows say.

The question as to whether Fielder should be given a day off here and there is moot now. These are the playoffs; this isn’t the time for days off. Same goes for Miguel Cabrera.

Ahh, Miguel.

Cabrera smiles a lot, too. He plays the corner opposite Fielder in the infield, and Miggy has as much fun as Prince does, maybe more. Both Fielder and Cabrera are like big kids who haven’t quite grown up, and you get the feeling sometimes that they’d play baseball for nothing.

Cabrera is hurting and hurting bad. That has been well documented. The reigning MVP and Triple Crown winner of a year ago is playing with half a body—the top half. Everything from his stomach on down is a mess.

His home run in Game 5 of the ALDS notwithstanding, Cabrera isn’t anywhere near the hitter he can be—robbed of his fearsomeness by the groin, abdominal and hip muscles that are plaguing him.

Fielder hits behind Cabrera, as he has since becoming a Tiger before the 2012 season. In baseball parlance, they call it protection—placing someone behind your big slugger so teams aren’t as eager to pitch around the slugger.

It’s a sound strategy, and with someone of Fielder’s capabilities, it is indeed a deterrent to constantly pitch around Cabrera.

But these are the playoffs, and Prince Fielder’s history says that when the calendar turns to the 10th month, he turns to goo.

Entering the 2013 postseason, Fielder’s playoff numbers were feeble for a man of his regular season stature.

Fielder was 19-for-104 for his career in the playoffs through last season—9-for-52 as a Tiger, with one home run and three RBI.

That’s not what Mike Ilitch had in mind when he rescued Fielder from the ignominy of being an unwanted free agent just weeks before spring training in 2012.

It hasn’t gotten any better in this postseason.

Cabrera is swinging with basically just his wrists, and Fielder is, by all accounts, healthy as a horse.

Yet, Fielder isn’t really providing any of that so-called protection as he didn’t last year. He has been, frankly, a total bust in the playoffs for his entire career.

That has to change—and fast.

The Tigers need Prince Fielder now more than ever, and they are in the unenviable position of relying on a guy whose postseason resume wouldn’t make it past a recruiter’s first screening.

Cabrera showed, with that clutch homer in Game 5 of the ALDS against Oakland, that the hands still have it—that the wrists can still yank an inside pitch about 375 feet.

But mostly, Cabrera is a singles hitter—half a player who is on the field on sheer guts and nothing else. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if, when the baseball games for the Tigers are done for the year, we find out that Cabrera needs some sort of surgery.

Baseball history is filled with feats of grandeur from players who seem to turn it up a notch when October arrives. When the games mean the most, the performances grow exponentially.

Reggie Jackson and his three homers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. Sandy Koufax, limited to just a fastball, beating the Minnesota Twins on two days’ rest in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series. Jack Morris, going 10 ferocious innings to win Game 7 of the 1991 World Series. Who can forget Mickey Lolich, working on short rest and tossing a complete game victory in Game 7 of the 1968 World Series—beating Bob Gibson, no less, who was another who craved the pressure.

And so on.

Fielder has been the antithesis of this.

He’s a slugger who shrinks when the spotlight is on. In the playoffs, the emperor has no clothes.

I have been impressed with Fielder’s knowledge of the strike zone. I don’t believe him to be a flailing windmill. I don’t think he gets enough credit for working a count—in the regular season.

In the playoffs, he turns into a different hitter.

The strike zone becomes generous—at Prince’s behest. He hacks away, almost in a panic. He is twice the easy out he is in games played between April and September.

Prince Fielder has been invisible in the playoffs, yet he’s been impossible to miss. His postseason failure is the elephant in the room.

This isn’t the bleating of someone who believes that a keyboard turns him into an expert. The numbers are raw, and they aren’t pretty. You can look them up yourself, if you’re so inclined.

The Tigers need Prince Fielder more than ever with Miguel Cabrera hurt if they’re to wiggle past the Boston Red Sox and make a return appearance in the World Series.

Fielder has yet to show, in over 100 postseason at-bats, that he can be someone on which to rely in October. A cynic might say that he just doesn’t have it in him.

We’ll see.

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MLB‘s revised instant replay rules aren’t in play yet, but replay certainly played a role in a critical situation during Game 4 of the ALDS between the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s Tuesday evening.

With Sean Doolittle on the mound for the A’s and no one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Tigers designated hitter Victor Martinez hit a towering fly ball deep to right field.

A’s right fielder Josh Reddick leaped for the catch, but it was clearly out of reach of his outstretched glove, giving Martinez the home run to tie the game at 4-4.

But wait!

In Jeffrey Maier-like fashion, a fan reached over the yellow line at the top of the wall to grab himself a souvenir.

But unlike the 1996 incident, the umpires had a chance to get the call right with the use of video replay. And Twitter was abuzz with speculation as to what the call would be. 

In the case of Jeter’s home run in the 1996 ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles, it was clear that the umpires got the call wrong; Maier did in fact interfere in the play. 

But video replays from several angles clearly show that the umpires did indeed get this call right at Comerica Park.

It was only the second home run of the entire series for the Tigers; Jhonny Peralta’s three-run shot earlier in the game put the Tigers back in the game at 3-3.

In this case, the A’s can’t say they got robbed by a bad call.

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When the Detroit Tigers take the field at Comerica Park for Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Tuesday afternoon, they won’t just facing Oakland and the specter of elimination, they’ll be staring an unflattering history in the face.

Since 1972, Detroit has eventually succumbed to elimination in the postseason every single time they’ve faced it.

Starting with the 1972 ALCS against, ironically, Oakland, the 1987 ALCS against Minnesota, the 2006 World Series with St. Louis, the 2012 ALCS in Texas and last October’s World Series with San Francisco, the Tigers have made a habit of falling short in comeback attempts.

If the 2013 ALDS is to be different, they’ll need to follow the following steps on the path to a major ALDS comeback.

1. Continue to receive major October moments from Doug Fister

During Monday afternoon’s Game 3 loss to Oakland, it became clear that the Tigers were going to face a must win in Game 4.

Their reluctance to skip fourth starter Doug Fister in favor of going back to AL Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer seemed odd, especially in light of Los Angeles, playing with a lead in the NLDS, skipping their fourth starter to give the ball to Clayton Kershaw on Monday night.

Of course, not many fourth starters have postseason numbers like Doug Fister. In 36.1 career postseason innings as a member of the Tigers staff, Fister, the tall, lanky right-hander, has posted a 2.97 ERA.

While Fister won’t overpower hitters like Scherzer or Justin Verlander, he has the ability to generate outs on the ground, keep the ball out of the air, and, most importantly, keep the team in the game.

As Jim Leyland told Paul Hagen of MLB.com, the team has confidence he will get the job done in this spot and get the ball to Scherzer, and possibly Verlander out of the pen, in a deciding Game 5.

“He’s one of our four,” Jim Leyland said. “He’s a competitor. He keeps the infielders and outfielders on their toes because he works fast. He’s a terrific fielder. He has movement and his forte is to make them miss hit the ball. He makes them mis-hit the ball, put it in play and makes the defense work.”

2. Find the offensive magic

As I wrote in the aftermath of Monday’s Game 3 loss, the Tigers offense has disappeared.

Due to the zapped power of Miguel Cabrera and Austin Jackson’s speed and BABIP (batting average on balls in play) prowess rendered useless due to high strikeout numbers, Detroit can’t seem to string together hits or walks to score runs.

Even if Fister brings his best stuff, he’s unlikely to shut out an Athletics offense that cranked three home runs off Game 3 starter Anibal Sanchez on Monday.

Detroit will need to score, preferably early, to settle Fister into a groove with a lead and get the home crowd fired up. If the Tigers can continue their short, but effective, history against Athletics Game 4 starter Dan Straily, they should do just that.

Although Straily has only made 34 career major league starts since the beginning of 2012, current Tigers hitters have 33 career plate appearances against him. Combined, they’ve hit him hard.

As the following chart shows, Torii Hunter leads the charge and is key to knocking around Straily early and often in Game 4. 

3. Play with a sense of urgency

As we saw from the Rays and Cardinals on Monday, as well as the Braves (until Fredi Gonzalez refused to use the best closer in the world with the lead in Los Angeles), elimination games can bring out the best in teams in October. There is no tomorrow for the Detroit Tigers in the sense of 2013, but the narrative may extend further than that.

While the Tigers aren’t likely to morph into a bad team in 2014, their championship window could be closing sooner than you think. After qualifying for the ALCS in 2011 and World Series in 2012, it’s time for Detroit to get over the hump and host a parade in a city that could desperately use one.

The average age of Detroit’s position players in 2013 was 30.1.

Miguel Cabrera may continue to hit at a blistering pace for another two or three seasons, but remember Albert Pujols, the former “best hitter alive,” had his last truly great year (173 OPS+) at the age of 30. In 2014, Cabrera will be 31.

Torii Hunter, the aforementioned Dan Straily killer, is 37. Victor Martinez is 34. Jhonny Peralata, fresh off a 50-game suspension in connection with the Biogenesis scandal, is a 31-year-old middle infielder heading for free agency.

Max Scherzer, likely headed for an AL Cy Young, is a free agent after the 2014 season (via Cot’s Baseball Contracts). If he posts another year close to his 2012-2013 form (10.5 K/9, 128 ERA+), the 28-year-old right-hander could price himself out of the Tigers budget, especially after their front office guaranteed Justin Verlander $160 million from 2014-2019.

If the team doesn’t make a single offseason addition, they would still be a good pick to win the AL Central and compete for a title in 2014, but the clock is ticking in Detroit.

If 2014 became an injury-plagued or down year for some older players, an era of Tigers baseball could easily come and go without a World Series title.

Now or never feels extreme, but the Tigers need to play like it to necessitate a comeback in the ALDS.

What is the key to fueling a Detroit comeback in the ALDS?

Comment below, follow me on Twitter or “like” my Facebook page to talk all things baseball.

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Max Scherzer earned it.

That’s what Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland indicated when he tabbed Scherzer to start Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Oakland A’s. The exact phrase he used, as reported by George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press, was that it was “hard to argue” with Scherzer being the best man for the job.

It’s even harder to argue now. 

Scherzer took the ball in front of 48,401 hostile fans at O.co Coliseum on Friday night and had them quietly twiddling their thumbs for much of the evening. He allowed only two earned runs on three hits and two walks. And ultimately, he set new postseason career highs for innings pitched (seven) and strikeouts (11) to lead the Tigers to a hard-fought 3-2 victory and a 1-0 series lead.

There was some debate as to whether Scherzer was the right choice to start Game 1. Not a lot of it, mind you, but apparently enough for an ESPN poll. If there was enough debate for one of those, there was surely enough for some water-cooler chatter elsewhere. 

Leyland could have gone with old standby Justin Verlander, which was the no-brainer choice last year when he was the reigning AL Cy Young and MVP. And all he did in the 2012 ALDS was limit the A’s to one run in 16 innings over two starts, the latter of which was a series-clinching shutout on the road in Game 5.

Or Leyland could have gone with Anibal Sanchez, the 2013 American League ERA champion. Heck, even ground-ball merchant Doug Fister would have been a solid choice. Barring notorious BABIP magnet Rick Porcello, Leyland could have rationalized any choice he made.

But Leyland didn’t make any choice. He made the right choice.

Scherzer made one bad pitch all night on Friday: a fastball to Yoenis Cespedes in the seventh inning that caught too much of the plate. Cespedes promptly sent the pitch into orbit for a two-run homer that narrowed Detroit’s lead to 3-2 and woke the crowd up something fierce.

What seemed to be the turning of the tide, however, was soon quelled by Scherzer’s hand. He followed Cespedes’ home run by retiring the next three batters in a row, the last a swinging strikeout of Daric Barton.

For Scherzer, that was the cap on a start that came off as feeling, well, typical. Aside from Cespedes’ moonshot, Scherzer was able to do his usual Max Scherzer thing.

After the game, he indicated that was more or less the whole idea.

“It was the same as always,” said Scherzer when asked about his mindset heading into Game 1. “I don’t get caught up in the hoopla. I don’t worry about where I’m pitching or if I’m pitching Game 1 or Game 5. It doesn’t matter.”

But then he hinted there might have been a little extra something going on in his head: “When you’re facing a postseason team like the A’s, you have to bring your A-game.”

The A’s certainly weren’t a team to be taken lightly. The club as a whole cut down on the strikeout habit that served as its Achilles’ heel in 2012, going from placing third in MLB in strikeout percentage to placing 20th. And like it did last year, Oakland’s offense exploded in the second half, leading the majors in home runs and placing behind only the Boston Red Sox in runs scored.

Scherzer was one of the more notable dragons slain by Oakland’s offense in the second half. When the A’s faced the right-hander in late August, they touched him up for six runs (five earned) in only five innings. By Game Score’s reckoning, it was Scherzer’s worst start of the season.

Scherzer said after the game that his rough outing against the A’s in August didn’t lead to any real adjustments ahead of Game 1’s performance. For him, he just did his usual thing.

“Tonight I just thought I came out there with a good fastball and good changeup,” said the 29-year-old right-hander, “and I was able to mix in some curveballs to the lefties to help slow them down. I made some big pitches with the curveball in some situations to help generate some outs.”

Oakland A’s manager Bob Melvin singled out the fastball as a notable factor.

“He’s always tough,” said Melvin, adding: “If you don’t see him that often, his fastball gets on you a bit quicker because of how his velocity plays. He has such good extension.”

Concerning Friday night, however, Melvin doesn’t know the half of it.

Per Brooks Baseball, Scherzer’s heater was sitting at 94.9 miles per hour and got as high as 99.2 at one point. He was also getting an average of 8.64 inches of horizontal break on it.

His season averages in those two departments: 93.96 miles per hour and 7.88 inches. The latter is impressive enough, as no right-hander who threw as many as 500 four-seamers generated as much horizontal movement as Scherzer.

So with even more movement and velocity in Game 1, Scherzer’s already fantastic fastball was more fantastic.

Scherzer’s changeup, meanwhile, did its job. While his overpowering fastball ended up accounting for over half of his 20 swinging strikes, the changeup took care of the other half. At around 85.3 miles per hour, it was coming in roughly 10 miles per hour slower than his hard stuff on Friday night, with its typical nasty movement to boot. Most of the swings against it were of the helpless variety.

As for the curveball, it’s actually one of Scherzer’s newer weapons, one that he used almost exclusively against left-handed batters in 2013 after giving it a tryout toward the end of 2012. It proved to be a lefty killer, as they only hit .194 against it with two extra-base hits.

And Scherzer is right about the curve getting him some outs against the A’s in Game 1. He didn’t get any whiffs on the curves he threw, but both of the curves that were put in play on Friday night went for outs.

Scherzer credited two other things for his success in Game 1.

“I thought I did a good job of attacking the zone and throwing first-pitch strikes—something I always pride myself in—and was able to get deep into the game,” he said.

Scherzer threw 78 of his 118 pitches for strikes. That’s 66 percent, a mirror image of his regular-season rate of…66 percent.

As for first-pitch strikes, Scherzer threw 18 of those to the 26 batters he faced. That’s 69.2 percent, a rate slightly higher than his regular-season rate of 64 percent. Which, for the record, was a new career high.

Add it all up, and you get another exclamation mark in a season that’s been full of them for Scherzer. The regular season that saw him finish with a 21-3 record was no accident. Wins are fluky, but posting a 2.90 ERA with a 10.1 K/9 and a league-best 0.97 WHIP is as good a way as any to keep ’em coming. The best way to a great record is through great pitching.

And to that extent, not even one of the guys who might have started Game 1 could deny Scherzer’s claim to the honor.

“Max is the best pitcher in the American League,” said Verlander before Game 1 when asked if he was disappointed that he wasn’t chosen to start. “The only reason this is being brought up is because of what I’ve done over the last couple of years. Like I said, Max without a doubt is the best pitcher in the American League, and he absolutely earned this.”

He sure did, and he sure made the most of it. 

And if Verlander, Sanchez and Fister follow Scherzer’s lead, he’s likely not going to be done making the most of Game 1s.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted. Quotes obtained firsthand.

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