Tigers just silently matched a high water mark from their 2011-2012 heyday

The Tigers became the first team in the American League to win 10 games on Monday, following up some somewhat silent franchise history they made over the weekend. The 10th victory was secured when they beat the Brewers 9-1 in what would've been a shutout had the Tigers not entrusted the last two innings to Kenta Maeda. Tarik Skubal pitched his longest start of the season far (seven innings), and only allowed four hits (all singles) while striking out nine hitters.

The offense was fully alive too, with the Nos. 1-6 batters all walking away with at least one RBI (Gleyber Torres had three, Andy Ibáñez had two). Kerry Carpenter crushed his fifth homer of the season, a solo shot in the top of the fifth, but Detroit was able to pull off a near-rout with timely hitting and good baserunning.

Detroit maintained the best run differential in the AL over the Yankees and Rays, the only other two teams with a positive differential, and the fifth-best mark in baseball.

After their second win over the Twins on Saturday, the Tigers were 40-18 dating back to Aug. 11, 2024, marking their best 58 games since "since posting the same record between August 19, 2011 - April 26, 2012."

Tigers' 40-18 record since August 2024 matched a record set by some of Detroit's greatest squads

The Tigers finished first in the AL Central in both 2011 and 2012, and those were the years when Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Austin Jackson, and Alex Avila were reaching new peaks in their careers. The Tigers' 2025 rotation is already drawing comparisons to their 2012-2013 starters with Tarik Skubal at the helm as a counterpart to Verlander, and although the team missed out on Alex Bregman, who they were depending on to breathe some life into the offense, their current core is proving that they can come through without him.

With all the comparisons, the Tigers repeating history from some of the organization's golden years, and their run differential putting to paper that they're the most dominant team in the AL right now, it's impossible for fans not to feel even more prepared to run through a wall than before.

Of course, the postseason didn't work out prettily for either the 2011-2013 Tigers, but even with all of that heartbreak and the squalor of most of the years between then and now, this Tigers team is at least bringing back what fans have been missing for over a decade: a lot of hope.