Where Tigers’ ridiculous hot streak ranks among unlikeliest playoff runs of all time
The Detroit Tigers have gone on an improbable run to make the playoffs. The Tigers were well out of the playoff picture mid-season, but a hot streak has put them into the American League Division Series. They aren’t the first team to go on one of these runs and are far from becoming No. 1 on this list. The Tigers aren’t heavy underdogs to the Cleveland Guardians, so what seemed improbable is now much more likely. Four teams are ahead of the Tigers on this list, but that doesn’t mean it won’t change by the end of October.
5. 2024 Detroit Tigers
© Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
The Detroit Tigers will undoubtedly climb this list if they can continue their hot streak and advance to the World Series like the teams above them. While the other teams turned it around after a disappointing prior season, they didn’t have an unbelievable resurgence mid-year.
The Tigers were +50000 on some sportsbooks to make the playoffs in early August, with other books taking the option off the board because it was such a longshot. They are now +1200 on Fanduel to win the World Series.
Detroit can do it, led by their flamethrowing starter Tarik Skubal. Skubal will likely be the American League Cy Young and is the perfect makeup for a postseason picture.
The Tigers were sellers at the trade deadline, which makes the run even more improbable. If they can win 11 more games and claim the World Series, it’d be one of the greatest stories in sports history.
4. 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks miraculously won the World Series in 2001 but hadn’t sustained much success. They made the playoffs four times between 2002 and 2022 and won two series. It reached a new low in 2021 when they lost 110 games and sat near the bottom of the MLB standings. Arizona won 22 more games in 2022, but they still looked far away from competing for a World Series.
The Diamondbacks’ 84 wins were surprising considering they had a -15 run differential. Their advanced numbers were those of a 79-win team, which wouldn’t have gotten them into the postseason.
However, the pesky Diamondbacks found a way to break through and got hot in the postseason. Arizona won five straight games to start the playoffs, beating the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card series and their rival Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game sweep.
The Diamondbacks fell short in the World Series, losing in five to the Texas Rangers. The parity forming in the MLB is shown with the Diamondbacks and Tigers doing this in back-to-back years.
3. 2008 Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays were 66-96 in 2007, finishing fifth in the American League East. The Rays were the laughingstock of MLB. They had lost 90+ games every year and needed a spark to contend in the division. The AL East had turned into a gauntlet, with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees battling for a World Series every season.
The Rays had no expectations entering the 2008 season, but manager Joe Maddon provided the previously mentioned spark. The Rays won 97 games, and not only made the playoffs but beat the Red Sox and Yankees to win the division.
The run didn’t end there for the Rays, as they defeated the Chicago White Sox in four games and the Red Sox in seven to advance to the World Series. The Cinderella run wasn’t meant to be for Tampa Bay, like the Diamondbacks, as they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games.
2. 1990 Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds finished fifth in the National League West in 1989, dropping off considerably from their Big Red Machine days. It looked like the Reds were barrelling back into mediocrity after failing to make the playoffs for ten straight seasons, which made the 1990 season come out of nowhere.
They completely turned it around in 1990. The Reds won 91 games and the division, then swept the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. The Athletics were the defending champions and were a powerhouse at every position.
The Reds had the perfect underdog mindset, led by Chris Sabo with a .563 average and two home runs in the final series.
1. 1987 Minnesota Twins
The run by Cincinnati wasn’t unprecedented, as the Minnesota Twins did it three years prior. The Twins hadn’t made the playoffs in 17 years and never had a winning season since 1979. The franchise also hadn’t won a World Series since moving to Minnesota, with their last coming in Washington in 1924.
The Twins defeated a 98-win Tigers team in the American League Championship Series to set up a World Series date with the St. Louis Cardinals. It went the distance, but the Twins outlasted the Cardinals in seven games.
The Twins finished the season with a -20 run differential, which made them the most unlikely team to have success when the 1987 playoffs began.
The post Where Tigers’ ridiculous hot streak ranks among unlikeliest playoff runs of all time appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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