Detroit Tigers: Sunday’s win was a big one for this team

The Detroit Tigers came back to defeat the Minnesota Twins, 10-8, in a wild game on Sunday. It will go down as a critical win for this team.

The Detroit Tigers are currently on the outside looking in for a playoff spot in the American League, and they face an uphill climb to make the postseason for the first time since 2014. Yet even if they don’t get into the postseason tournament, there still are plenty of opportunities to find positives in this shortened season. We saw one of them on Sunday.

Down 6-2 after five innings and facing four straight defeats to the rival Minnesota Twins on Sunday, the Tigers scored eight runs in the late innings and held on for a 10-8 victory. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead early, Casey Mize and Rony Garcia combined to give up six runs, including four in the fifth.

But then the Twins’ veteran Rich Hill left the game, and the Tigers started their offensive explosion, scoring three in the sixth, two in the seventh, and three in the eighth, including the go-ahead home run by Grayson Greiner.

The Tigers’ bullpen did give up single runs in the sixth and the eighth innings, but give a lot of credit to Bryan Garcia for coming in and, after giving up a single, closing the door and not letting the Twins gather any more momentum in the ninth inning.

Divisional wins are always important, especially against a team you’re chasing, as the Tigers are chasing the Twins now. Yet to rally off the Twins’ bullpen late in the game and to do just enough to squeak out a win showed a ton of character from this team. I’m sure the team learned a lot and built some more character because of this win as well.

When the season ends, whether the Tigers are in the playoffs or not, we’ll look back on this win as one of the most important of the 2020 season. This was the type of win that the team can build on as it looks to carry some momentum into next season and beyond.