KANSAS CITY -- The Tigers’ backs are against the wall, and a silent clubhouse following Detroit’s 3-1 loss to Kansas City on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium expressed the frustrating feeling surrounding a club that just can't get things to go its way.
The loss was the Tigers’ seventh in the past eight games. Last Friday, they held sole possession of the third and final American League Wild Card spot. Since then, Texas, Toronto, Minnesota, Cleveland, Baltimore and Seattle have all passed Detroit in the standings. The Tigers (61-68) are still only 2 1/2 games out of the playoffs, but in dropping seven games under .500 for the first time since July 29, they have lost ground it took a month to gain in just a week.
“It’s a bad time to have a bad week,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “This time of year, when you feel like your backs are against the wall a little bit and then you run into a week like this where runs are hard to come by, a game was flipped [on a Pirates walk-off homer]. We come in here, pretty hot team with Kansas City [which has now won seven straight]. We see some good pitching, but we still have to find a way.”
It’s been harder to find that path to victory as injuries have piled up, in addition to the significant Deadline trades of Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize. The end result is the fact that the Tigers are simply relying on a lot of unproven talent to chase down a spot in October. The most obvious example of that Saturday was starter Drew Anderson, who was thrust into the rotation after the Trade Deadline out of necessity.
Anderson had a solid outing against the Royals -- his fourth start in August -- tossing five-plus innings of three-run ball. But he allowed a pair of solo homers to Kyle Isbel and Salvador Perez before being chased after Jac Caglianone began the sixth inning with a double down the right-field line.
With a lineup filled with rookies opposite 2026 All-Star Michael Wacha, those three at-bats were enough to change the game.
“Drew made a couple of mistakes, but the margin of error was small,” Hinch said. “The couple of misplaced fastballs ended up over the fence, and the ball to the backstop [from reliever Tanner Rainey that scored Caglianone]. ... I thought [Anderson] threw the ball OK. Just right now, everything feels a little bit empty given the way the series has gone.”
Detroit managed just a single run on three hits in Saturday’s loss, provided by Hao-Yu Lee on a Statcast-projected 446 foot homer to left field in the fifth. The Tigers scored just two runs on six hits in Friday’s loss and have yet to hold a lead entering Sunday’s series finale.
“He doesn’t really concede anything, he doesn’t make a ton of mistakes, the art of pitching is still alive,” Hinch said of Wacha. “He changes speeds. He can move the ball around. He’s got plenty of stuff, and I thought he bullied us a little bit into some quick at-bats.”
That can be easy to do with an inexperienced group facing Kansas City’s most reliable starting pitcher. With Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling, Wenceel Pérez and pitchers Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson, Justin Verlander, Will Vest and Brant Hurter all sidelined with injuries, the Tigers have turned to new names.
Eduardo Valencia, Max Clark, Brett Callahan have done enough to hold their own, but with 2026 All-Star Dillon Dingler in the midst of a slump at the plate, the Tigers have been searching for ways to score more runs.
It’s been a tough stretch, but the Tigers weren’t supposed to be doing this without their star players in the first place. That doesn’t mean this past week hasn’t hurt, though. Detroit’s full attention is still on the postseason -- nothing’s changed. But with a 6.7% chance to make it there, per FanGraphs, time is running out.
“It doesn’t matter who’s missing, it doesn’t matter what the circumstance is or where you’re at in the season, the feeling in this clubhouse is that we roll out a group that we feel like we can win that night’s game with,” Hinch said. “And we haven’t this week and we’re feeling it.”