The Tigers have been mired in a late-season slump that has them on the doorstep of one of the greatest collapses in baseball history.

This is not how the Detroit Tigers drew it up at the beginning of the season. After leading the American League Central for the better part of the past five months, the Tigers’ playoff hopes and the outcome of the division come down to one weekend in Boston.

The Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox are in the thick of the Wild Card race as they face off in the final regular-season series. The Tigers have been in a tail

Wenceel Pérez captured the relief of the Detroit Tigers after finally ending their eight-game losing streak in a 4-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians.

With three games left, the Tigers and Guardians share first place in the AL Central, but Cleveland holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Offensively, they were much better in the first half average wise, slug wise, and in high leverage situations (with RISP and two outs). Timely two-out hits are important, and they had a lot more of those in the first half of the season. That is what has changed with the Detroit Tigers.

The Detroit Tigers’ free fall has now reached epic depths. They are now tied with the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.

The Guardians lost to the Tigers Thursday, but still have won 18 of 22 and 22 of 29 entering Friday. Thus, Cleveland has gone from 15.5 games back of Detroit on July 6 (and +17000 to win the AL Central at DraftKings) to -230 to win the division at DraftKings.