Tigers Magic Number: Detroit fans simply counting down the days in final month

With the Tigers' Wednesday win against the Mets, they solidified at least a .500 season and maintained a 9.5-game lead over the AL Central's second-place Royals. It's not a matter of if the Tigers get to the postseason, rather when they officially lock in their spot.

It's the season of magic numbers, defined by MLB as "the combination of wins needed by a team and losses by its closest competitor to clinch a given goal." There are two formulas you can use to find the magic number:

• Games remaining + 1 - (Losses by second place team - losses by first place team) OR
• 163 - (first-place team's win total + second-place team's loss total) = magic number.

Through Sept. 15, the Tigers are 85-65 and Guardians, who have fought back to the second place spot, are 78-71. The Tigers' magic number to clinch the AL Central is 7. Detroit's upcoming series against the Guardians is crucial; if they sweep, they could clinch the division with a win over the Braves on Sept. 19.

Calculating Tigers' magic number with three weeks of the regular season left

The two toughest series left on the Tigers' calendar are three-game sets against the Yankees (Sept. 9-11) and the Red Sox, who they close out their regular season against. In between, they'll see three below-.500 teams: the Marlins, Guardians, Braves, and Guardians again. The Royals have three tougher series back-to-back-to-back against the Phillies, Mariners, and Blue Jays from Sept. 12-21.

Detroit has suffered a small skid since Aug. 26; since then, they're 3-7 and were thoroughly bullied by the Mets in their first two games against them. It doesn't help that they just lost closer Kyle Finnegan, who has been outstanding since the trade deadline, with the pitching being hard to watch far too often.

Still, a clinch is right in front of them, and the Tigers just need to capitalize on their remaining series against easier squads and do some bullying themselves. Even if the Blue Jays continue to pull away with the best overall record in the American League, no one would complain about a second-place finish and a bye straight to the ALDS. The Tigs just need to lock in and get it done.