The 'Gritty Tigs' are Detroit's most fun baseball team in decades

Detroit Tigers announcer Jason Benetti's most memorable call of 2024 may not have come the day the team clinched its return to MLB's postseason for the first time in 10 years but rather the day before: "A city that doesn't care about the odds has a baseball team to match."

The team had come from behind yet again that day -- this time after rallying to take the lead in the eighth inning against the Rays -- and in one short sentence Benetti summarized just why these "Gritty Tigs" have come to mean so much to Tigers fans everywhere.

This team, like this city, was overlooked and previously left for dead. They both refused to listen to what people on the outside said and looked within. On Aug. 11, the Tigers had just a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs. Even two weeks ago that figure had climbed to just about a 10% chance.

Every challenge set before them was supposed to be the one that brought it all crashing back to earth but instead they won one series after another, going 31-11 during the days those improbable odds flipped until finally Friday against the White Sox the Tigers were able to pop the corks and celebrate.

This isn't a team full of stars. At the start of the season, fans outside of Detroit may have been able to name one or two players beyond Javy Baez and Tarik Skubal.

It's not the one with the highest payroll. In fact, it's bottom five in MLB in that figure.

This team is a mixture of homegrown talented, drafted and developed in house, and the kind of blue-collar veterans who were never at the top of anyone's draft boards. Jason Foley, who went undrafted only to become the team's near-perfect closer, may best encapsulate that.

These Tigers are underdogs who are quickly becoming MLB's story of the year. If your team's not in the playoffs, this just might be the one for you.

But none of that is truly what makes this team the most fun one we've seen in many of our lifetimes.

It's the way that they play the game. They're the "Gritty Tigs" for a reason.

The 2024 Detroit Tigers play a fun brand of baseball

Over the past 18 years, the Tigers have fielded some pretty good baseball teams. They've had fun surprising teams before like the World Series runners-up of 2006. They've had rosters with multiple future Hall of Famer players like Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, both of whom were at the top of their games while wearing the Old English D. They truly gave some great baseball memories to baseball fans in Detroit.

What few teams in the past have given, however, is a feeling of hope for all nine innings of a game. If this was like Little League and they lasted for just six innings, past teams would have been well-equipped to win. Strong starting pitching and plenty of hitting led to a lot of early leads. Then the bullpen would come in and you'd have to hope the Tigers could get through the ninth inning before an implosion wiped a lead away.

Not these Tigers. Detroit has the fourth-lowest ERA among relievers this season. They've allowed the lowest percentage of inherited runs to score. Foley locks down the ninth with an 88% save rate, while a fireman like Tyler Holton (8-for-8 in save chances himself) can be found just about anywhere and has a 2.19 ERA to show for it.

When the Tigers traded away starting pitcher Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline and had to find a way around Reece Olson's injury, manager AJ Hinch didn't follow the traditional manner of how you put together a rotation: he just used the strong bullpen to his advantage to give his players the best opportunity to succeed -- and they did.

They're fundamentally strong. Baserunners take the extra base. Parkers Meadows and Matt Vierling have each been worth three extra runs on the basepaths, while Zach McKinstry and Wenceel Perez have both added two, per Statcast. They don't chase often -- the team has the third-lowest chase percentage in the American League (ninth overall). In the field, the Tigers have the sixth-best outs above average (per Statcast).

If something does happen to go wrong, there's hardly reason to fear. The Tigers' three-run comeback against the Rays is only the most recent one. They came back from five runs down -- in the ninth inning -- to beat the Dodgers in July for the biggest one. In a key mid-September game, they rallied back from a 4-0 deficit to the Royals for a 7-6 win.

And best of all, they're clearly having fun out there while they're doing it. This isn't stodgy baseball. This is a team of players who are having fun and seeing how far that can take them. They don't listen to what any experts say they should or shouldn't be able to do. They just go out and do what they want to. As a fan that's just incredible to watch.

As the regular season comes to a close, we don't yet know how this story ends. But it's safe to say, no matter what happens this is a year and a team that will be fondly remembered by Tigers fans for many years to come.