Tigers Playoff Odds: Series win over A's propels Detroit to best position yet

It's becoming clearer and clearer that the Tigers are gunning seriously for that last Wild Card spot. Last week, they took two losses at the hands of the Padres before coming from behind in the finale thanks to a ninth-inning grand slam for Parker Meadows.

They went up to Oakland to see the Athletics for three more games on the west coast over the weekend in a must-win series to stay in contention, after slipping down to five games back of the Wild Card as the Royals and Twins started to win again.

The opener against the A's was a hard-fought, 13-inning affair that Oakland eventually took with a walk-off single for Seth Brown, but the next night was won as early as the seventh with a sac fly from Meadows to take the game by just one run. The finale was a 9-1 blowout that featured a four-hit day for Trey Sweeney and Ty Madden pitching five innings for his first major league win.

With that win, the Tigers improved to 73-71, tied with the Mariners and just 3.5 games out of the Wild Card behind the Twins, who have lost five of their last seven. It's the best position Detroit has been in since the possibility of an improbable postseason run started to enter the picture.

Tigers Playoff Odds: Detroit moves just 3.5 games out of the Wild Card with series win over A's

Looking forward through the last 18 games of the season, the Tigers have a .475 strength of schedule remaining, the lowest in the American League. They head back to Comerica for three games against the Rockies, another must-win series, before things get tougher against the Orioles, Royals, and Orioles again.

Coming up next, the Twins will see the Angels for three games and the Mariners will host the Padres for two. However, the Twins have only won one of their last six series, while the Mariners have been just as hot as the Tigers lately and have swept San Diego once already this season. However, they'll also have the Yankees and Astros to deal with in the last two weeks of 2024.

The Tigers don't control their own fate here. Even if they keep winning, their closest competitors have to keep losing if Detroit is going to make it back to the postseason for the first time in 10 years. However, these are tantalizing numbers we're looking at after the A's series, and it's becoming clearer that the Tigers are fully willing to play down to the wire.