DETROIT -- The chant started to echo around Comerica Park as the Tigers stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth on Monday night.
“Free the squirrel! Free the squirrel!”
By all accounts, the squirrel in question was fine after scrambling all over the field for the better part of two innings. Still, the sight of more than a dozen grounds crew members struggling to corral one squirrel in the right-field corner between innings -- with some help from Orioles right fielder Leody Taveras -- seemed like a metaphor for the Tigers’ playoff predicament.
Michigan’s squirrels aren’t aggressive, but they are elusive. Likewise, every time the Tigers seem to have captured momentum for a charge back into the postseason picture, it eludes them again. And all it takes is one stumble to seemingly undo a series of steps forward.
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The Tigers’ postseason odds stood at 42.4 percent on FanGraphs a few days ago, their highest chances since mid-May. They stood a better chance than the AL Central-leading White Sox for a day. After three consecutive losses, including Monday’s 8-5 defeat to the Orioles, Detroit’s chances dropped to 25.8 percent, its lowest in three weeks.
Tigers players will point out that their chances two years ago had dropped to 0.2 percent before they went on a six-week run to capture a Wild Card spot. But when Detroit’s Trade Deadline status, including the immediate future of Tarik Skubal, likely rests on whether the Tigers have a realistic chance at reaching the postseason, it feels like their playoffs are now. And three straight losses can be a killer.
“All of them are must-win games,” Riley Greene said. “I don’t think the circumstances are really affecting how we’re playing. We’re going out there, and we’re trying to win every single game no matter what. It doesn’t really matter if it’s now or if it’s May. We have to win all those games."
Unlike the previous two losses, both late-inning comebacks off Detroit’s bullpen, Monday’s defeat felt more like the squirrel pursuit. Every time the Tigers rallied for runs, the Orioles answered. Detroit scored in the second, fourth and fifth innings. Each time, the O’s scored the next inning, including a three-run fifth that chased starter Keider Montero and put Baltimore in command.
“All of us know what we have to do,” Montero said through translation from Tigers director of Spanish communications Carlos Guillen. “We do our best to win games, regardless of where we are. Our job and our work and our focus is to win games to be in a good position to keep going.”
Detroit has played better baseball over the last month-plus in no small part thanks to its starting pitching, which entered Monday with an MLB-best 2.79 ERA since June 15. Montero has been a big part of that, which made his struggles Monday stand out. He didn’t toss a scoreless inning until the fourth, when he retired the top of the Orioles' lineup in order. He induced just six whiffs on 35 swings, and despite allowing just two balls over 100 mph in exit velocity, he tied a career high with nine hits.
It was the kind of outing that might have sent manager A.J. Hinch to his bullpen if he could call on Montero, who spent a few weeks in a hybrid role before jumping back into the rotation following Jack Flaherty’s injury.
“Honestly, I don’t know what happened,” Montero said. “I feel good. It looked like every contact they made, the ball was hit in an area where nobody was. It was like they were tossing it with their hands.”
It could not have come at a much worse time.
“These are obviously tough,” Hinch said. “I just can’t live in a world where there’s this dramatic fall-off after you lose a game. We’ve got to play again tomorrow, and I’m trying to do my best to maintain that momentum moving forward. Of course we need to not lose three in a row, but I struggle sometimes to articulate what that means. Every time we lose, it’s this catastrophic loss. And we need to win the games. We needed to win the last two games. We needed to win tonight.
“We’re working. These guys are giving everything they have. But you’ve got to keep pushing. The game is going to continue to punch you in the face, and you’ve got to keep pushing."