Tigers fans demanding offense at trade deadline perhaps missed this key stat

When the Detroit Tigers entered the second half of the season as the best team in baseball, president of baseball operations Scott Harris received plenty of criticism for his conservative trade deadline strategy. Sure, he added some bullpen arms and a veteran, playoff-tested starting pitcher in Charlie Morton; but where was the right-handed power bat that this lineup supposedly needed?

Tigers fans had long been begging for another bat, but a quick glance at the numbers indicates that Detroit's offense may be in better shape than we thought. The Tigers have scored seven or more runs in four of their last five wins, and they scored a combined 18 runs in their three-game sweep of the American League West-leading Houston Astros this week.

In fact, the Tigers' 7-2 win over the Astros in Wednesday's series finale marked the 39th time this season that Detroit scored seven or more runs in a game. That's tied with the Milwaukee Brewers – the team that has since dethroned the Tigers as the best team in baseball – for the most in MLB.

Tigers fans who thought lineup needed a bat at trade deadline perhaps missed this key stat

Admittedly, the Tigers are in the middle of the pack when it comes to team batting average (.249, good for No. 13 overall); but they have been coming up big when it counts.

Wednesday's win over the Astros not only completed the series sweep, but also secured the season series win – which secured the tiebreaker in postseason seeding, if necessary. That tiebreaker would be the difference between the Tigers landing in the best-of-five ALDS and the best-of-three AL Wild Card series if Detroit and Houston finished with the same record.

The Tigers' offense may not dominate opponents routinely – they beat Houston, 1-0, in extra innings on Tuesday – but they are still averaging more than five runs per game and allowing fewer than 3.5 in their last four series, all of which they won. As a result, the Tigers have seen their AL Central lead increase to 9.5 games after getting as close as 5.5 games last week.

Everybody loves offense, and adding an extra bat to the Tigers' lineup at the trade deadline certainly wouldn't have been a bad thing. But it's hard to argue with the results, which indicate that Detroit's need for offense may not have been as dire as most fans thought.

More Tigers content from Motor City Bengals