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Ringolsby: Tigers face Wild ride in next 4 starts
- Updated: September 28, 2016
DETROIT — Now comes the biggest challenge for the Tigers in their season-closing bid to claim one of the two American League Wild Card berths.
It was one thing to have Justin Verlander take the mound on Tuesday night in a game critical to the Tigers’ bid to claim one of the final playoff spots in the next five days.
“Justin has been there,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “He has been the guy when a team needs a big start; he has done it. He did it before I got here. He has done it while I have been here.”
And Verlander did it again on Tuesday, turning in a dominating 7 2/3 innings in the Tigers’ 12-0 victory against an Indians team that had clinched the AL Central title the previous night and now is focused on next week and the start of the postseason.
Ausmus, however, won’t have the luxury of handing the ball to Verlander again until the final game of the regular season in Atlanta on Sunday, at the earliest.
Things are going to get a bit more challenging until then as the Tigers attempt to make up a one-game deficit to the Orioles for the second AL Wild Card spot and hold off a charge by the Mariners, who slipped a game back of the Tigers after an 8-4 loss at Houston on Tuesday.
Face it, Ausmus is shuffling a rotation in which Verlander is the only one of the nine pitchers to start a game for the Tigers this season who has worked the 162 innings necessary to qualify for the ERA title. Rookie Michael Fulmer (11-7) is the only …
