The 2007 Mets may soon be replaced with the 2025 Tigers.
Detroit is on the verge of the worst collapse in MLB history with four games left in the regular season, and the once-shocking thought of missing the playoffs is now a distinct possibility.
The Tigers (85-73) have already blown a 15.5-game July division lead to the Guardians and that will be the biggest in MLB history unless Detroit rallies, according to ESPN.
“It’s painful,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said after Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to the Guardians, per ESPN. “I’m having a hard time coming up with words, and I know that’s not the norm. But what I’m seeing out of our team is not normal. But it’s our reality.”
The Tigers once seemed like a lock for the playoffs and a potential shoo-in for the AL’s top seed, but they are now on the precipice of disaster after losing 11 of 12.
Their free fall has been so stunning that it’s made the Mets’ seem like child play.
Detroit spent 184 days in first place and sat 25 games above .500 on Aug. 23, per Baseball Reference, yet it now trails the Guardians by one game in the AL Central and Cleveland holds the tiebreaker.
The Tigers even had a 15.5-game lead over the Guardians through July 8, when they sat at 59-34 and Cleveland owned a 42-48 record, but the teams then went in opposite direction.
Cleveland even still trailed by 10.5 games entering the month before 12-1 stretch suddenly has the Guardians in control of their own divisional destiny.
The Guardians aided their efforts by going 5-0 against Detroit over the past two weeks, with a chance for a sweep Thursday night.
The 1978 Red Sox own the largest blown division lead in the divisional era dating back to 1969 after squandering a 14-game edge to the Yankees, according to ESPN, but the Tigers will need some outside help to avoid entering the record books for all the wrong season.
“You don’t make sense of it,” Tigers starter Jack Flaherty said, per ESPN. “You just move to the next day. These guys (the Guardians), that’s some of the best baseball I’ve seen in September, just in what they’ve been able to do. They’ve done their job, and we haven’t done ours.
“We’re in the spot we’re in now, and we’ve got to come out and keep competing, show a little bit of fight. We’re not executing in a bunch of different ways right now. Somebody’s got to get a spark.”
The Tigers and Guardians complete their season series Thursday before Detroit heads to Fenway Park this weekend to face the Red Sox in what could be a potential elimination series between the teams.
The Guardians will close the season with the Rangers, who have been eliminated.
A season that once seemed potentially magical is suddenly now on life support without any answers.
Forget the Mets’ seven-game lead with 17 contests left back in 2007 — these Tigers are taking choking to a whole other level.