The Tigers have two more postseason award winners.

Left fielder Riley Greene and utility man Zach McKinstry won American League Silver Sluggers Awards on Friday night. The awards go to the best hitter at each position and are voted on by MLB managers and coaches.

Greene hit .258 with 36 homers, 111 RBI and 31 doubles. His slugging percentage was .493 and his OPS was .806. Greene set career-highs in homers and RBI in his fourth MLB season.

McKinstry had 23 doubles, 12 homers and a .259 batting average. His OPS was .771 and his WAR was 2.8 – both career bests.

Both Greene and McKinstry made the AL All-Star team at midseason.

Last week the Tigers’ Dillon Dingler won the AL Gold Glove Award for catcher. The Cy Young will be awarded next week and Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal is one of three finalists. Skubal won the Cy Young in 2024.

The National League Silver Slugger winners were announced Thursday night.

AL winners

C – Cal Raleigh, Seattle

1B – Nick Kurtz, Athletics

2B – Jazz Chisholm Jr., New York

3B – Jose Ramirez, Cleveland

SS – Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City

OF – Riley Greene, Detroit

OF – Aaron Judge, New York

OF – Byron Buxton, Minnesota

DH – George Springer, Toronto

UT – Zach McKinstry, Detroit

NL winners

C – Hunter Goodman, Colorado

1B – Pete Alonso, New York

2B – Ketel Marte, Arizona

3B – Manny Machado, San Diego

SS – Geraldo Perdomo, Arizona

OF – Juan Soto, New York

OF – Corbin Carroll, Arizona

OF – Kyle Tucker, Chicago

DH – Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles

UT – Alec Burleson, St. Louis

DETROIT — The appetizer portion of Tarik Skubal’s offseason is just about over.

With the main course — likely his second straight American League Cy Young Award — coming in a little over a week, Skubal has nibbled on a pair of honors this week.

On Wednesday, he won the MLBPA Players’ Choice Award for the most outstanding pitcher in the American League. And on Thursday, in a vote of the Detroit Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Skubal was named Tiger of the Year for the second straight season.

Skubal received 20 of 23 votes, with Riley Greene, Dillon Dingler and Kerry Carpenter each receiving one vote.

This one was a no-brainer.

Skubal led the American League in 12 different statistical categories this season, including WAR (6.6), WHIP (0.891), strikeout-walk ratio (7.3) and was second in strikeouts per nine innings (11.1).

“He’s just a complete bulldog out there,” said Pirates ace Paul Skenes, who is favored to win the National League Cy Young Award. “You talk about predator versus prey, he’s the predator. Always attacking, just attacking the strike zone with his stuff. Obviously, it’s really good stuff and, you know, he trusts it.”

Skubal’s plus-51 run value ranks in the top percentile in baseball. In 31 regular-season starts (195.1 innings), he limited hitters to a .200 average and a sub-.600 OPS (.559), with a 32% strikeout rate and 4% walk rate.

And in three postseason starts, he allowed four runs in 20.2 innings with 36 strikeouts and four walks.

All of that is why he is expected, on Nov. 12, to become the first pitcher since Pedro Martinez in 1999-2000 to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards.

Around the horn

The Detroit Chapter of the BBWAA also named Spencer Torkelson as the recipient of the 2025 Good Guy Award, given to the player who best exemplifies a cooperative spirit with the beat writers who cover the team. In a clubhouse full of worthy recipients, Torkelson stood out especially during the team’s slide in the final two months of the regular season. He stood in front his locker after a lot of tough losses and never ducked a question.

… Per MLB transactions, the Tigers have re-signed veteran catcher Tomas Nido to a minor-league contract. Nido, 31, spent the entire 2025 season in the Tigers’ system, appearing in 10 games with the Tigers. He was also on the club’s postseason taxi squad.

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers blew away the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series. Try as all parties involved might to suggest that things could have gone differently with a few breaks here or there, the Brewers simply did not have the horsepower to keep up. They looked like a team built on a budget playing a team that spares no expense – which, of course, is exactly what they were.

Maybe that had nothing to do with the Dodgers’ sweep. Maybe, if they played this series again – say, in a stretch when the Dodgers’ starting pitching wasn’t historically dominant – the Brewers would win it. They did, after all, beat the Dodgers in all six games they played in the regular season. No one can say for sure.

But what is certain is that even the downright modest present-day value of Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year contract (roughly $460 million) could cover the Brewers’ entire payroll three times over with room to spare. In other words, the fight for this year’s NL pennant put baseball’s haves-and-have-nots economics on national display.

Twelve months and a few weeks from now, baseball’s collective bargaining agreement will expire, a moment for which the industry has been bracing for years. Payroll disparities across MLB – such as the one on display when the Dodgers and Brewers met – have widened so much that almost everyone agrees substantial economic change is necessary.

But the owners and players disagree so dramatically on what shape that change should take that both groups are bracing for a lengthy lockout, readying themselves for the possibility of an extended work stoppage so completely that players and executives alike are crafting contracts with security in the event of a missed season.

From some vantage points, then, this series had the makings of a referendum.

An easy Dodgers win would prove the point of MLB and its owners, who are in favor of a salary cap – but are careful not to say for certain whether they will push for one. Sure, their argument would go, a so-called small-market team such as the Brewers can be an annual contender in the regular season. But when it comes to the playoffs, all perceptions of parity evaporate. No small-market club has won the World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015, and only one other such team (the Florida Marlins in 2003) has won a title since the turn of the century.

Certainly, parity is not the only motivation that team owners would have in pushing for a salary cap, which would limit the money they could spend on payroll and, they believe, increase franchise valuations by establishing cost certainty more like that held by NFL, NBA and NHL teams.

The players union, by contrast, could look at this series as proof that parity is as strong as ever. The team in MLB’s smallest market (as measured by the CBA) had its best regular season record and home-field advantage into the NLCS. The Brewers had as good of a chance as anyone. If they had spent even a little more, they might have had the pitching they needed to keep up with the Dodgers.

Player salaries are not the problem, the union would argue; stingy owners are. Look what happened, for example, when the Seattle Mariners splurged at this year’s trade deadline after years of relative frugality: They are one win from the World Series.

“I think that we’re in a big market [and] we’re expected to win. Our fans expect us to win. I can’t speak to what revenue we’re bringing in, but our ownership puts it back into players, a big chunk of it, which I know that’s the way it should be with all ownership groups,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said. “… I think that that’s what sports fans would want from everyone – to get the best of their team.”

The Dodgers batted away the Brewers with elite starting pitching – more than $1.3 billion worth by total contract value. The Brewers were not alone in finding their offense suddenly inert against this Dodgers rotation: The formerly slugging Philadelphia Phillies scored more than three runs just once in four games against them in the NL Division Series and are now reevaluating the makeup of their roster.

The Dodgers also can afford to stockpile arms and approach the regular season with only mild desperation, which is how they ended up with four top starters at full strength in October. They let Ohtani take his time working back from Tommy John surgery so that he would be fully built up by late in the season and not a moment before. They let Blake Snell take his time working back from shoulder trouble, so much so that he made just 11 starts before the postseason. They could give Tyler Glasnow a lucrative contract extension despite his injury history because they were not signing him to be their only ace but rather one of several.

“I think the one constant, at least from my time here in L.A., is we use a lot of people. We use our roster. Our front office does a really good job of providing depth from the beginning of the season and supplementing it as the season goes on,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said. “And it allows us to use guys to bring in, to get big outs, even if it’s for two or three games.”

Brewers Manager Pat Murphy repeatedly brought up his team’s underdog status this past week, pointing out at one point that Snell “makes more money than our entire pitching staff.”

“That’s for a reason – because he’s great. What he demonstrated [in Game 1] was the high end of his game, unbelievable. That’s great,” Murphy said. “We can’t do anything about it.”

But even Murphy, who is not one to filter, knew better than to inflame tensions with a comment on whether his team would face a fairer fight with a salary cap in place. He insisted he does not use the Brewers’ perceived financial disadvantages as a motivator.

“That’s a correlation between great success and great payroll, so you can bring it up if you want to, but I don’t bring it up with our guys,” Murphy said. “I just try to get them to play hard and believe they can.”

Even if this series was symbolic, it is hard to see it changing many minds. Certainly, neither side’s position would be altered by its outcome. MLB Players Association bulldog Bruce Meyer, for example, seems unlikely to rethink his union’s most fundamental position because those doggone Dodgers won again.

But even a year before those negotiations begin, the questions were being asked and the stories were being written. MLB and union officials made their cases to reporters on the field. And everyone from team officials to coaches in the dugout wagered their guesses about how long a work stoppage might last – and which side will blink first.

These are supposed to be the halcyon days before collective bargaining’s cruel reality check, but the storm clouds are already here.

DETROIT – There is nothing new on Tarik Skubal contract extension front. Nothing new was reported Thursday when MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reiterated the Tigers “non-competitive” initial extension offer – which happened roughly a year ago at this time when the Tigers had Skubal under control for two seasons.

And if the numbers that Heyman and others threw out there are accurate – four years, roughly $100 million – then that would have been the highest extension offered to a pitcher prior to free agency, topping Justin Verlander’s $80 million extension in 2010.

Skubal, through his representation (Scott Boras), rejected the offer last year. But that, by no means, represents the Tigers’ base offer going into this offseason. To say there is a $250 million gap is just a guess. It’s not based on anything real.

Nobody truly knows whether there have been any new negotiations. Neither side is saying anything publicly. But the leverage points are different now on both sides with Skubal entering his final year of team control.

Spotrac, an industry data base for contracts, payrolls and market values, projected an eight-year extension worth $300 million ($37.5 million annual salary).

That doesn’t mean that’s the number Boras is seeking. That doesn’t mean Boras would accept any extension offer. He generally prefers to take his high-end clients on to the open market where 30 teams can bid.

It makes good fodder for website clicks and talk radio discussion, but these numbers that are being thrown around, again, aren’t based in fact. Information leaked from agents comes with an agenda. They are generally trying to build a market for their clients.

If information leaks out from the team, someone might get fired. Tigers president Scott Harris steadfastly refuses to talk about contracts or trades even in the most general terms.

Here was his answer when I asked him if the club faced a decision point this offseason on Skubal.

“Listen, I totally understand the question, and I understand that you have to ask me,” he said. “I’ve kind of learned over time, especially with this question, that general comments tend to get chopped up and forced into narratives. I can’t comment on our players being traded. I can’t comment on free agents. And I can’t comment on other teams’ players.

“So I’m going to respond by just not actually commenting on it. Tarik is a Tiger. I hope he wins the Cy Young for the second consecutive year. He’s an incredible pitcher and we’re lucky to have him. That’s all I can say on that.”

Things were read into Skubal’s statement on the issue, too. He was asked about his future immediately after the Tigers lost Game 5 of the ALDS in Seattle.

“My job is to play,” he said. “(It’s) not my job to do anything other than play. Those questions should be asked toward the front office and the people that make those decisions. But my job is to go out there and play.”

He wasn’t implying anything. He was simply saying what is fundamentally true: These decisions and discussions are between the Tigers and his agent. It’s not his place or in his best interest to comment publicly.

Free agency starts the day after the World Series ends. Qualifying offers go out five days after the World Series. Nov. 21 is the deadline for tendering arbitration-eligible players.

Skubal, per estimates by MLB Trade Rumors, could get as much as $17.8 million if he went to arbitration.

That’s where this is right now and that’s where it’s been. Nothing has changed. The Tigers options, presuming there will be no extension, are to seek a trade for Skubal this winter or ride it out in 2026 and try to win a championship with him.

The time for the Tigers to get the maximum return in a trade would’ve been last winter when he had two years of control left. Getting the same yield on a player with one guaranteed season left, even one as dominant as Skubal, is unlikely.

Trading him in-season, unless the team falls out of playoff contention, is sub-optimal, as well.

The Tigers traded Verlander at the trade deadline in 2017 and got Jake Rogers as part of the return package. The other prospects didn’t pan out. They lost Max Scherzer to free agency in 2015, getting a compensatory draft pick that ended up being Christin Stewart.

Anything can still happen. All scenarios are open. But nothing to this point has happened.

DETROIT — Remember when reports surfaced late in September saying the Tigers and manager AJ Hinch were nearing an agreement on a contract extension?

“Those reports were baseless,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris said Monday with a wry smile.

They were baseless because Hinch and the Tigers agreed on a contract extension at midseason. They just didn’t announce it.

“I absolutely love working with AJ,” Harris said, during the team’s season-ending media conference at Comerica Park. “He’s one of the best managers in the game. We have now proactively extended him twice because we want him to be here as long as he willing to be here and I want to work with him as long as I possibly can.

“It was one of the easiest conversations I’ve had because he wants to be here and we’re both bullish on the future of this organization and we are proud of what we’ve done.”

The Tigers, as per organizational policy, don’t make public the contract terms for the manager or coaching staff.

Hinch, 51, ranks eighth on the Tigers’ all-time managerial wins list with 394 in five seasons. He’s guided the team to the playoffs and eight postseasons wins over the last two years.

“I love it here and I love working with Scott,” Hinch said. “This was the second time I was approached and asked for more and it’s an immediate yes for me. When you have an environment that both pushes you and satisfies you, I was thrilled.”

Once he got the OK from his wife and family, he signed the deal. With one stipulation: that it wouldn’t be made public during the season.

“It’s hard to look at where you are personally in the middle of the season,” he said. “Which is why my one request and Scott’s one request was that we just do it and not talk about it. It’s about the players during the season, it’s about winning and we had a lot of games left.

“We didn’t want to be a distraction.”

Hinch and his family have been growing roots in the Detroit area over the last three years, since Harris signed him to the first extension before the 2023 season.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be the manager of the Tigers,” he said. “It’s a rewarding place to be. We’ve bought a home here. We live here the majority of the year and we continue to become more and more Michiganders as a family.

“I am grateful for Chris (Ilitch, chairman and CEO), for Scott, for Jeff (Greenberg, general manager). All of us are on board to bring a World Series here. That’s why I want to be here.”

Hinch said there would be discussions later this week about his coaching staff. It’s possible there will be some changes.

“We evaluate every possibly way we can get better,” he said. “I think our staff answered a whole lot of the challenges we’ve been given and all of that is in a really good place. But we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t debrief about our entire group.

“But I am really proud of this group of coaches and the culture we’ve created.”

Sandy Alomar Sr., an All-Star infielder during his playing days in the 1960s and ’70s who went on to coach in the majors and manage in his native Puerto Rico, has died. He was 81.

A spokesperson for the Cleveland Guardians said Monday that the team was informed by Alomar’s family about his death. Sandy Alomar Jr., who along with Hall of Fame brother Roberto played for their father in winter ball and in the minors, is on the Guardians’ staff.

“Our thoughts are with the Alomar family today as the baseball community mourns his passing,” the Guardians said on social media.

Alomar broke into the big leagues in 1964 with the Milwaukee Braves, one of six teams he played for. He also spent time with the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, California Angels, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers before calling it a career in 1978.

Known more for his speed and fielding than his hitting, Alomar batted .245 with 13 home runs and 282 RBIs in 1,481 regular-season games.

He was named an All-Star in 1970. He stole 227 bases, including a career-high 39 in 1971, when he led the American League with 689 at-bats and 739 plate appearances, and took part in one playoff series with the Yankees in ’76.

Alomar went into coaching in San Diego’s system in the ‘80s and was the Padres third-base coach from 1986-90. He coached for the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies and the Mets in the 2000s.

DETROIT ― When Kyle Finnegan was traded to the Tigers from the Washington Nationals on July 31, he brought with him a pedestrian 4.38 ERA and 1.282 WHIP. Understandably, the move didn’t have Tigers fans jumping all around.

But Tigers fans would probably welcome Finnegan, a free-agent-to-be, back for 2026.

After the trade, Finnegan was one of the Tigers’ most-consistent relievers, pitching in leverage situations and posting 1.50 ERA and 0.722 WHIP in 16 games in August and September. The veteran right-hander, 34, is a free agent this offseason, and he would welcome a return the team that helped him right the ship.

“You never know what the season has in store for you,” Finnegan said last Friday, following the Tigers’ season-ending loss in Seattle in the American League Division Series. “And, you know, getting traded over here I think was big for me. I think, you know, I unlocked a lot of things that will help me moving forward in my career. And that’s a testament to the people that this organization has.

“I can’t say enough about the staff and the players, and, just top to bottom, it was a first-class experience, and I was really happy to be a small part of it.

“I loved every second of my time here. And, you know, hopefully the feeling is mutual.”

In two months with the Tigers, Finnegan’s WAR was 0.8, per Baseball-Reference. His best WAR over a full season, in his first five major-league seasons, was 1.0. Pro-rated for a full season, Finnegan’s WAR with Detroit would’ve made him the team’s second-most-valuable pitcher, behind ace Tarik Skubal.

The Tigers saw Finnegan throw against them in Washington in early July, and he pitched back-to-back scoreless, hitless innings. A month later, they traded for him to help patch a leaky bullpen.

In 12 appearances in August, Finnegan didn’t allow a run. He struck out 19 in 14.1 innings, and saved three games.

But in early August, Finnegan landed on the injured list with a right adductor strain. Interestingly, he threw 14.1 innings in August, the most he’s ever thrown in a calendar month in the major leagues. He was out for nearly three weeks, and in his first appearance after his return, he allowed his first run with the Tigers.

Finnegan allowed a run in six of his last 10 appearances this season, including a run in three of the games against the Mariners, including the 3-2, 15-inning loss in the winner-take-all Game 5.

Finnegan was asked after Friday night’s game if he was fully healthy when he returned from injury, and he said he was.

“I felt good physically,” Finnegan said. “You know, I was on a pretty good roll (before the IL). And I think, you know, the injury kind of slowed the momentum, maybe a little bit. But I felt like I threw the ball pretty well all year.

“And, you know, happy with the season that I had.”

With the Tigers in the regular season, Finnegan allowed 4.5 hits per nine innings (down from 8.3 this season with the Nationals) and 2.0 walks per nine (down from 3.2), while striking out 11.5 per nine (up from 7.4). Finnegan this year credited the Tigers for increasing his splitter usage in strikeout situations.

Finnegan is likely heading for a raise from the $5.38-million contract he signed with the Nationals for 2025. Other free agents include trade-deadline pickup Rafael Montero and winter signing Tommy Kahnle, neither of whom would is a major priority from the Tigers. Will Vest, the bullpen leader, is arbitration-eligible, as is lefty Tyler Holton.

The Tigers’ bullpen was, by many measurements, middle of the pack in Major League Baseball this season, but Detroit’s bullpen was near the bottom of baseball in strikeouts.

SEATTLE ― Home-field advantage doesn’t get talked about as much in baseball as some other sports, notably football.

And the electric factory that was T-Mobile Park on Friday might’ve made the difference. At the least, it certainly made a difference early in the game when the Seattle Mariners took a 1-0 lead in a game they eventually won, 3-2, in 15 innings, to cap off a spectacular American League Division Series.

The volume level was off the charts almost the entire night, from pitch No. 1 to pitch No. 472, which Jorge Polanco ripped for a winning single that sent the Mariners to the AL Championship Series, and sent the Tigers home.

“This ballpark was just loud from the first pitch and all the way through the 15th inning and kept us going tonight,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “I think our guys fed off that very well.”

The decibel level certainly seemed to impact the game in the second inning, after Josh Naylor scraped a one-out double the opposite way to left field.

Naylor had been animated on second base all throughout the series, using hand motions as if he’s relaying pitch signs to the batter, though the Tigers downplayed that and suggested it was more about just trying to be a distraction.

Then, after the double early in a scoreless Game 5, Naylor started hopping off second base, and when he realized Tigers ace Tarik Skubal wasn’t turning around, Naylor, after starting and stopping, bolted for third, and he stole the base pretty easily. Second baseman Gleyber Torres was yelling at Skubal to step off, according to shortstop Javy Báez .

Skubal clearly couldn’t hear him, amid a crowd of 47,025 screaming fans, and he went home with the ball. Naylor was the first player to attempt a steal of third off Skubal all season. Naylor’s a smart base runner. He has the physical stature of a guy who can count his stolen bases on one hand, but he had 30 in the regular season in 2025.

“Being loud … communication is really hard,” Báez said in the Tigers’ quiet clubhouse after the game, while the Mariners continued to celebrate on the field with champagne. “He just played good baseball,.

“He did his homework. He know Tarik wasn’t going to pick (off) to second. But, you know, that’s part of the game.”

Naylor getting to third base proved huge, when the next batter, Mitch Garver, lofted a flyball to center field that was plenty deep enough to score Naylor for the first run of the game.

Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler was asked about the play after the game, and said he didn’t want to shout anything to his pitcher in that moment, because he’s fearful it could’ve caused a knee-jerk movement and, thus, a balk that would’ve gotten Naylor over to third base, anyway.

Dingler said maybe he could’ve called timeout when Naylor was just starting to dance off second base, but he didn’t even know if he could be granted a timeout if the runner was already in motion.

“I really don’t know, to be honest. I’ll have to figure it out,” Dingler said. “It’s one of those things where I didn’t know if he could maybe hear the people behind him, middle infielders, but it’s just one of those things, you don’t want make that situation worse.

“At the end of the day, if he gets to third, you know, he has a chance to punch out (Garver).”

It was a big early run off Skubal, who was outstanding all postseason, and Friday was no exception.

After the Naylor double, Skubal retired the last 14 batters he faced, including seven strikeouts in a row at one point. He finished with 13 strikeouts, and 36 for his three playoff starts in 2025, spanning 20.2 innings. Skubal’s playoff run, even going back to last year, has been so historic, the Mariners’ postgame notes included nine paragraphs about Skubal, invoking comparisons to such legends of the game as Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver and Justin Verlander.

Even though he’s a local boy of sorts, having pitched at Seattle U, Skubal was greeted by Mariners fans with the loudest boos, by far, during pregame introductions. Of course, you don’t boo the ones you don’t care about.

The atmosphere, with fans in the stadium for more than seven hours Friday night, was in stark contrast to Game 4 at Comerica Park, which wasn’t even sold out ― a first for a postseason game at that ballpark. Tigers fans eventually perked up, in a 9-3 win that forced a Game 5 in Seattle. At T-Mobile Park on Friday, where the roof was closed, Mariners fans never really perked down, even if alcohol sales were cut off with, as it turns out, many innings to go.

MLB Network’s Jon Morosi on social media called the stadium vibe ― they even lit off fireworks when the innertube-wearing Humpy the Salmon got his first-ever win in the “Go Fish” race, the second of the night, in the 14th inning, moments before the Mariners’ walk-off winner ― one of best in all of sports.

“That’s everything we would have wanted in a game, the atmosphere, the energy,” Tigers reliever Kyle Finnegan said. “That environment was incredible.”

The get-in price for Game 5 tickets on the secondary market was more than $250 before first pitch Friday night, and there were far fewer Tigers fans in Seattle on Friday than there were Mariners fans in Detroit earlier in the week.

The Mariners now will host Games 3, 4 and, if necessary, 5 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays next week. It’s Seattle’s first appearance in the ALCS since 2001.

Those games in Seattle will be sellouts, and they will be loud ― and fans just might, again, make a difference.

“I didn’t hear much. The crowd was very loud,” said Polanco, who had a big hand in both of Skubal’s starts in the ALDS, homering twice off the lefty in the Mariners’ 3-2 win in Game 2, and then hitting the walk-off against Tommy Kahnle in the 15th inning of Game 5. “I just want to say, ‘thank you’ for that.

“And, hopefully, they keep showing up.”

DETROIT — Maybe this will be therapeutic in the wake of that soul-crushing, 15-inning, Game 5 loss in Seattle on Friday night. Spin the highlight reel:

• April 4, home opener: Kerry Carpenter thrills the sellout crowd with two home runs against the White Sox.

• April 8: Spencer Torkelson, Zach McKinstry and Dillon Dingler all homer in the fourth inning against Yankees starter Carlos Corrasco in a 5-0 win.

• May 2 in Anaheim: Riley Greene makes history, becoming the first player ever to homer twice in the ninth inning. Colt Keith and Javier Báez also homer in that eight-run ninth.

• May 8: The Tigers finish a 10-game road trip exploding for 21 runs in a doubleheader sweep in Colorado. They score 79 runs in the 10 games, second most in franchise history and at 25-13, establish their best start since 2014 and own the best record in baseball

• May 9: Finally home, Tarik Skubal strikes out 12 Texas Ranger hitters, getting a club-record 32 swings-and-misses in seven innings.

• May 12: They respond to their first home series loss of the year by scoring nine runs in the third inning against Boston and starter Tanner Houck in a 14-2 win. They have accrued 228 runs in 42 games, their most since 2007.

• May 13: Again against the Red Sox, Báez homers twice including a three-run walk-off in the 11th inning after Boston scored twice in the top of the 11th.

Remember all these good times?

• May 25: After losing a heartbreaker to the Guardians the night before, Skubal puts the team on his back, throwing a complete-game shutout in 94 pitches — a Maddux, in other words. But the first ever Maddux with a 13-strikeout exclamation point.

• June 2 in Chicago: Carpenter continues his assault on White Sox pitching, whacking three homers, becoming the first Tiger to homer three times in a game since Victor Martinez in 2016.

We had some fun, right? Watching the Tigers become the first team in baseball to win 30 games, first to win 40, first to win 50, first to win 60. Watching them run the bases like demons, going first to third more times, and with a higher rate of success, than any other team, led by McKinstry’s 74% extra-bases taken percentage.

Watching Greene and Torkelson racing toward 20 and then 30 home runs. Seeing Greene tap into his light-tower power — the 471-footer he hit over the batter’s eye in Sacramento and the 454-foot rocket he hit in Game 5 of the ALDS.

Seeing Greene stamp his place in Tigers history, joining Hank Greenberg as the only Tigers to amass 31 doubles, 36 homers and 111 RBIs at age 24 or younger.

Watching Wenceel Perez throw out two Oakland runners at second base in the same game on June 24. Watching him again a few days later in Cleveland, fire a 97.9-mph seed to the plate to throw out Bo Naylor in a 2-1 Tigers’ win.

Watching Báez, the Gold Glove shortstop, make one sensational play after another in center field, filling in while Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling were injured.

Having six players selected to the All-Star game as they amassed 59 wins at the break.

Watching Skubal take his performance level a step higher after winning his first Cy Young Award last year. Watching Casey Mize reinvent himself as more of a power pitcher, ripping 90-92 mph sliders and 90-mph splitters off 95-96 mph heaters. Watching Will Vest grow into an attack-dog leverage reliever. Watching rookie Troy Melton burst on the scene as both a starter and reliever.

Watching Dillon Dingler blossom right before our eyes, at the plate and behind it. It’s very rare for a team to lose its starting catcher in April and subsequently get better.

All that stuff happened. It’s just gotten buried under the rubble of a late-season swoon that cost them the division title and the heartbreak of Game 5. But it shouldn’t be dismissed.

“We are a good baseball team,” Skubal said. “We didn’t accomplish the trophy, but there’s a lot to be proud of and work off of.”

The Tigers season ended in the same place it did last year, with a Game 5 loss in the ALDS. The core of the team also took a step forward. Both things can be true.

“Even in the rough September, we took steps forward,” manager AJ Hinch said. “It’s not all about the record when you’re learning. Unfortunately, we put ourselves in harm’s way a little bit, but we battled back to get the win in Cleveland, to get the win in Boston, to get the series win in the wild card, to take this about as far as you can take a series.

“We are growing up.”

A friendly reminder that Keith is 24, Greene 25, Meadows 25, Perez 25, Torkelson 26, Dingler 27, and Carpenter 28, and none have more than two years of accumulated MLB service time.

“Based on last season, being able to get some experience in the postseason, it’s easy to forget how young we are and that we’re still learning,” Hinch said.

There’s still a lot of work to do, both individually and with the roster. President Scott Harris and his staff face a critical winter. There is going to be more internal growth, for sure, but it might be time to strengthen a few areas with proven, veteran talent.

As the bats went steadily quiet over the last month and through the playoffs, the need to look outside the organization for another run producer or two became acute.

Harris will also again be busy shopping for pitching, starters and relievers.

But those issues will be discussed in the weeks ahead.

For now, we put the 2025 season and all its manic highs and lows, all the massive accomplishments and biting disappointments, to bed.

“Our floor has been raised and we don’t know what our ceiling is,” Torkelson said. “We’re not satisfied making it to Game 5 of the ALDS. We want more. This stings, but we raised our floor and created a new standard of what it should be like.

“We need to keep it going.”

DETROIT (AP) — Jose Ramirez hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the seventh inning after Tarik Skubal was replaced and the surging Cleveland Guardians swept the slumping Detroit Tigers with a 3-1 win on Thursday.

Cleveland has won seven straight to close within 3.5 games of the AL Central-leading Tigers with a little more than a week left in the regular season. The teams are scheduled for three more games Sept. 23-25.

Detroit has lost six of its last seven games and 15 of 22, turning an 11.5-game cushion into a lead that isn’t comfortable.

Returning from an injury scare last week, Skubal gave up one run, seven hits and struck out nine over six innings.

The reigning AL Cy Young Award and pitching Triple Crown winner was replaced by right-hander Troy Melton in the seventh in a 1-all game. Nine pitches later, Ramirez broke the tie with a 368-foot shot to right.

Cleveland’s Jhonkensy Noel hit a game-tying solo homer in the fourth.

Tanner Bibee (11-11) gave up one run and four hits while striking out eight over six innings. Tim Herrin and Kolby Allard followed with two innings of scoreless relief and Hunter Gaddis pitched the ninth for his third save.

Melton (3-2) took the loss after allowing two runs on two hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings.

Key moment

The Tigers started the second with three hits, including Colt Keith’s RBI double, and they failed to score another run after having two on and no outs. Keith left the game after the inning with back stiffness.

Key stat

The defending AL Central-champion Guardians are a season-high 10 games over .500, bouncing back from having a losing record on Sept. 4 by winning 12 of 13 games.

Up next

Guardians LHP Parker Messick (3-0, 1.84) and Twins RHP Pablo Lopez (5-4, 2.64) are to start Friday night in Minnesota. Detroit opens its final homestand Friday night with Tigers RHP Charlie Morton (9-10, 5.66) and Atlanta RHP Bryce Elder (7-10, 5.56).

DETROIT – The Tigers activated veteran right-hander Paul Sewald before the game Thursday.

Sewald, whom the Tigers acquired from the Guardians at the trade deadline, had been out since July 11 with shoulder soreness. He returned from his final rehab appearance on Wednesday.

In corresponding moves, right-hander Codi Heuer was released off the 40-man roster. He has been out with a shoulder injury.

Also, right-hander Jose Urquidy was technically designated for assignment, but he has agreed to accept an option to Triple-A Toledo to stay in the organization.

Procedurally, there is a 24-hour wait period before that part of the transaction can be completed.

“He’s demonstrated the positives in what he can bring,” Hinch said. “He’s creative. He’s got multiple pitches. He is undeterred by any big environment. He’s got a weapon for both sides of the plate.

But we are also seeing the difficulty in coming back from a second major surgery. He’s a little rusty, a little erratic and spraying the ball a little more than he normally does.”

With five years of big-league service time, Urquidy could’ve refused the option. But, with the Tigers holding a $4 million option on him next season and his stated desire to be part of this staff going forward, he signed off on it.

DETROIT (AP) — Steven Kwan, Angel Martinez, José Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo combined to give Cleveland four extra-base hits an extra inning for the first time in 64 years, and the Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers 7-5 in the 10th on Tuesday night for their 10th win in 11 games.

Pinch-hitter Kerry Carpenter tied the score 3-3 with a two-out homer in the ninth against Cade Smith (7-5), who blew a save for the sixth time in 21 chances.

Cleveland extended a winning streak to five for the fifth time this season, matching its high. The Guardians began the night three games behind Houston for the last AL wild card and closed within 5 1/2 games of the AL Central-leading Tigers.

The Guardians’ first our batters in the 10th had extra-base hits off Will Vest (6-4), when Kwan doubled, Martínez tripled, José Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo doubled. Gabriel Arias added a one-out RBI single for a 7-3 lead.

Spencer Torkelson hit a two-run homer in bottom of the 10th off Jakub Junis.

C.J. Kayfus hit an RBI single in the second and Gleyber Torres tied the game in the third with his 16th home run. Arias’ homer put Cleveland back ahead in the fourth and Bo Naylor’s RBI double in the sixth built a 3-1 lead.

Dillon Dingler drove in a run with a grounder in the bottom half, beating a throw to first to avoid an inning-ending double play.

Key moment

Cleveland had not had four extra-base hits in an extra inning since May 10, 1961, when Tito Francona, Chuck Essegian, Woodie Held and Bubba Phillips achieved the feat in the 11th inning during an 8-2 win at the Chicago White Sox.

Key stat

Several players wore No. 21 in honor of Roberto Clemente Day, but the Tiger who normally wears the number, rookie pitcher Jackson Jobe, is sidelined for the rest of the season with a flexor injury.

DETROIT — Tarik Skubal is on track to make his scheduled start against the Guardians on Thursday, though manager AJ Hinch stopped short of saying it’s a done deal.

“We said we were going to go day by day and we have,” Hinch said before the game Tuesday against the Guardians. “He’s inching closer to his start day. Obviously we’re thrilled with the news that things were looking positive.”

Skubal on Monday threw his usual between-starts bullpen and felt none of the tightness in his upper rib cage area that forced him out of his start in Miami.

“Everything felt good,” Skubal said. “Just one of those weird things. I don’t really know how to explain it. But the bullpen went well, the scans came back good, so it’s on to the next one.”

He was asked if he held anything back in his bullpen session, just as a precaution.

“No, it was a normal working pen,” he said. “If anything, I probably worked a little harder just to make sure I was good to go. There was nothing there.”

Tigers Nation certainly gave a collective sigh of relief. Skubal, too.

“During the game, I was a little worried about it,” he said. “But once I came out and calmed down a little bit and ran through most of the tests with our trainers, I wasn’t too concerned after that.”

If the Tigers had taken care of business Tuesday (they lost in extra innings) and Wednesday, Skubal could have been on the mound with a chance to clinch the Central Division title Thursday.

“This series is going to be fun,” he said. “Cleveland is a good team and we tend to play good baseball games against each other. It starts (Tuesday) with Casey (Mize) and hopefully we win (Wednesday) with (Jack Flaherty) and hopefully sweep. That’s the division if the math works out. But it starts with (Tuesday), for sure.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit two home runs to tie Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio for fourth place in Yankees history as New York beat the Detroit Tigers 9-3 on Thursday night to avert a three-game sweep.

On the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, President Donald Trump attended the game and watched from a suite on the third base side.

Judge homered off Tyler Holton (5-5) in the first inning and matched DiMaggio by launching his 361st career homer with a 434-foot drive to the back of the Detroit bullpen off Sawyer Gipson-Long in the third.

Judge had his sixth multihomer game this season and pulled even with DiMaggio two nights after passing Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra for fifth on the franchise list.

The two-time AL MVP had three hits and ended the night with a major league-best .322 batting average, three points ahead of Athletics rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson.

Giancarlo Stanton followed Judge’s second solo shot with his 449th homer, tying Hall of Famers Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Jeff Bagwell for 41st on the career list.

Including the postseason, it was the 56th time Judge and Stanton homered in the same game and fifth time this season.

Ben Rice hit an RBI double and José Caballero, Austin Slater, Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had run-scoring singles as the Yankees moved a half-game ahead of Boston for the top American League wild card heading into a three-game series at Fenway Park this weekend.

New York rookie Cam Schlittler (3-3) bounced back from his worst start and allowed one run on three hits in six innings.

Dillon Dingler homered and hit an RBI single, but the Tigers were unable to complete their first sweep of the Yankees in New York since 2008.

Key moment

After allowing Dingler’s tying single, Schlittler ended a 26-pitch second inning by striking out Parker Meadows and retiring Javier Báez on a groundout.

Key stat

The Yankees are 49-7 when Judge and Stanton homer in the same game.

— By LARRY FLEISHER, Associated Press

NEW YORK — The Detroit Tigers on Wednesday responded to an investigative article in The Athletic that detailed alleged incidents of sexual misconduct toward female employees and portrayed the organization as being a “boys club” where some women felt unsafe.

In a statement released through Ilitch Sports and Entertainment CEO Ryan Gustafson, the Tigers didn’t dispute the seven reported incidents against former employees. They took accountability for it, saying each was investigated promptly and each employee was terminated.

But the general culture of the organization, the club felt, was mischaracterized.

“We are committed to a culture of respect, safety, and inclusion,” the statement read. “We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment, and when concerns are raised, we investigate promptly and take decisive action, which has included terminating employees for misconduct, regardless of seniority or tenure.

“We are committed to accountability and to upholding the standards essential to our workplace.”

As the article mentioned, the seven employees cited for misconduct have either resigned, were fired or did not have their contracts renewed.

• Sam Menzin, former assistant general manager, cited for sending lewd photos to a female co-worker.

• Michael Lienert, former vice president of premium sales, accused of a number of things, including undisclosed dating of employees, bullying female employees, including an allegation of pushing a female down a flight of stairs.

• Josh Bullock, former vice president of business in Lakeland, cited for verbal and vulgar verbal attacks on men and women.

• Rob Gehring, former video content producer, cited for inappropriate conduct toward women.

• Peter Soto, former vice president of game presentation, accused of making inappropriate comments toward women.

• Also, former players and analysts Cameron Maybin and Craig Monroe were not brought back because of allegations of sexual misconduct.

More: Craig Monroe taken off Tigers’ TV minutes after sex-abuse claims came to light

“We are grateful to the employees who have spoken up here,” the statement read. “And to the more than 3,000 full- and part-time colleagues who contribute every day to ensuring a safe work environment.”

The Tigers contested one of the charges in the article, which claimed that Ben Fidelman, who is the vice president of communications and broadcasting, yelled at an employee and called her “stupid.”

The Tigers, like they did all the others, investigated the charges against Fidelman and found them unfounded.

“It is inaccurate and unfair to group Mr. Fidelman within a story about accusations of sexual harassment or related misconduct,” the statement read. “A concern unrelated to either was raised, and consistent with our process, it was investigated thoroughly, and no wrong doing was found.”

Ilitch Sports and Entertainment employs more than 3,000 people. The statement reiterated that each incident was taken seriously, investigated thoroughly and dealt with.

“We work hard every day to improve our workplace culture,” the statement read. “We encourage open dialogue and feedback, celebrate the contributions of our colleagues, and continue to invest in programs that support growth, well-being, and inclusion.

“Our colleagues have multiple channels to share input, supported by a strong human resources team that responds quickly to concerns. We also provide ongoing, company-wide training and education to prevent and address inappropriate behavior.”

The article also said Detroit is one of three MLB franchises that doesn’t offer maternity leave to pregnant employees. The Tigers were putting a 12-week maternity leave benefit in place before the article came out.

It is expected to be available before the end of the year.

DETROIT — He’s not ready to use the R word just yet.

But on Saturday, 37-year-old right-hander Alex Cobb notified the Tigers that he was going to shut it down for the remainder of the year and prepare to have a surgical procedure to alleviate the pain in his right hip.

“I’ve talked to some family about it and I can’t quite utter those words quite yet,” Cobb said of announcing his retirement. “Obviously, I realize that’s a big possibility.”

Cobb, who has valiantly tried to fight his way back from inflammation and pain in both his right and left hip all season, said he had his moment of clarity walking off the field Tuesday in Lehigh Valley, Pa.

After being shut down for seven days, he was scheduled to pitch two innings for the Toledo Mud Hens, his fourth Triple-A rehab outing. He made it through one.

“After the seven days I had off, I had a clear answer walking off the mound that it wasn’t going to work,” Cobb said. “I’d done everything I could and that was the best it was ever going to get and it wasn’t an acceptable product to put on the field or something where I could look to AJ (Hinch) or Scott (Harris) and tell them, ‘You can count on me.’”

Cobb talked to the media via zoom from his home in Arizona Saturday, his voice choking with emotion throughout. He was asked if he could take solace in the fact that he did everything humanly possible to get back — including getting multiple injections, platelet-based and steroidal.

“At some point I will,” he said. “I don’t have that right now. I’m disappointed. I knew with my mind the uphill battle I was going to have this year once I had (the inflammation) early in spring. But in my heart, I have envisioned being on the that mound pitching in the postseason and I just didn’t do it.

“It’s just been more of a gut punch not being able to do it and coming to that realization and knowing what comes next in my career and life.”

The next step, Cobb said, is to have a procedure called hip resurfacing. He had a more traditional surgery on his left hip in 2024.

“Guys who I’ve talked to who have had it, their eyes light up and they get a smile on their face,” Cobb said. “They say it’s the best thing you can ever do when you are in that type of pain and your hip isn’t working and you just want not to be in that pain and there is a solution.

“It’s very exciting to know that is going to be available to me.”

Cobb, who pitched 13 seasons in the big leagues and was an All Star in 2023, signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Tigers in the offseason and went through his normal offseason training regimen without even a hint of an injury.

“Working out, throwing, I had zero pain,” he said. “I signed with the Tigers, passed the physical, everything looked great. Three or four weeks later, I was ramping up (for spring training), I was getting off the mound, full-go.

“Then I literally woke up one day and couldn’t walk.”

The surgeon who worked on his left hip had forewarned him that he would likely have similar issues with his right hip.

“When I sent him the images (of his right hip), I could hear it in his voice,” Cobb said. “He just said, flat-out, he told me, ‘I’m so sorry, the pain you are in.’ I told him I was fine but you could tell he knew I wasn’t going to be fine.”

Cobb said, unbeknownst to him, he had arthritis in the right hip all along. It wasn’t debilitating at first but the cartilage eventually collapsed and he was left with the ball joint scraping on bone.

“I can handle the pain, easily,” he said. “But it’s when the pain and stuff aren’t matched up and you are unable to overcome the pain and have quality outings. For me to be in a position to earn the right to be on this team, I would need to be reliable and I’d need to be effective. And I wasn’t.

“I wasn’t ever going to get to that point. But I wasn’t going to give up.”

He thanked the Tigers’ medical staff and the trainers for all the efforts they put in on his behalf.

“We didn’t leave any stone unturned,” he said. “We did a lot. We did some stuff that isn’t the norm of the baseball world and they went out on a limb and took care of me and tried to make it happen. It got me to a point where I was pitching again.”

Cobb said he plans to be back in Detroit before the end of the season to line things up for the surgery.

“It’s an exciting time to be in that organization and to be a fan of that organization,” Cobb said. “What they’ve done is such a short period of time, it’s why I wanted to sign there. I believe in Scott and I believe in AJ and what they’re creating

“The hardest part is not being able to put that uniform on and go out on that field be a part of what I’ve been watching for the last five months.”