Tigers Playoff Odds: Detroit's magic run continues with comeback win over Royals

Reese Olson's return to the Tigers after two months on the IL started out pretty well. He took the mound for Detroit's series opener against the Royals and struck out the first batter he saw en route to a clean first inning. He kept it going in the second, taking the middle of the lineup down in order, but then things immediately got dicey in the third inning.

Adam Frazier led off with a walk, Yuli Gurriel singled, and then Kyle Isbel singled to load the bases. Olson got Tommy Pham to strike out again, but then Bobby Witt Jr., who very well might give Aaron Judge a run for his money in AL MVP voting, saw a curveball at the top of the zone and smashed it for a grand slam. 4-0, Royals.

Trey Sweeney responded to get the first Tigers run on the board in the top of the fourth with a sac fly, and then Kansas City tacked on another with a Maikel Garcia single. The top of the fifth is when the Tigers started looking like they were really going to put up a fight; Matt Vierling singled to drive in a run, then Colt Keith homered to score two more. 5-4, Royals.

Witt put more distance between them with an RBI single, but that's where the Royals scoring ended. The Tigers came back up in the sixth to score three more on a two-run Wenceel Pérez double and another Vierling RBI single. 7-6, Tigers.

Will Vest, Beau Brieske, and Jason Foley came out of the bullpen to prevent any more scoring for KC, and the Tigers closed out the night with a win, putting themselves in their best position yet in the Wild Card standings.

Tigers Playoff Odds: Detroit puts themselves in best position yet with Monday win over Royals

The Tigers are now just 1.5 games back of the Twins, but we should keep in mind that the Twins would take the Wild Card spot in a tiebreaker given their better head-to-head record, so Detroit is 2.5 games back in practicality. However, it's by far the best position they've been in yet, and their FanGraphs playoff odds rose to 17.7%, which sort of sounds too good to be true.

Against all odds, these Tigers are doing the thing. They're really doing it. With two more games to go against the Royals before they see the Orioles again in Baltimore, the Tigers really need a series win here. The Twins lost their series opener to the Guardians on the same night and are now 6-9 in August to the Tigers' 9-5. If Detroit can just get over this Royals-Orioles hump with a few more wins to get them past the Twins, they can use their final series against the Rays and White Sox to put some distance between themselves and Minnesota.

Don't look now, but this is actually happening. The Tigers are really and truly putting up a fight to stay alive into October.