The Detroit Tigers have performed surprisingly well this season.
Despite sitting at two games below the .500 mark, Detroit is in second place in the American League Central division and are only 2.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins.
Detroit is even ahead of the Cleveland Guardians, who ran away with the division last year.
In fact, the Tigers are 7-3 in their last 10 games and have won six of their last seven games, which includes a victory on Monday over the Guardians.
On MLB Network, several analysts discussed the Tigers’ recent surge and whether or not the team could emerge as a potential contender.
The @tigers are heating up, winning 6 of their first 7 games in May! #MLBCentral pic.twitter.com/KgDDE7FAeE
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) May 9, 2023
Detroit finished in fourth place in the AL Central last season, losing 96 games.
Mark DeRosa gave manager A.J. Hinch credit for being able to rally the troops.
He also looked back on their rebuilding period and how when it was taking place, he expected to see mainly pitchers making an impact on the team.
However, the young position players such as Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson have caught DeRosa’s attention given that some pitchers are currently injured.
Former Colorado Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd chimed in and discussed the importance of the team getting left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez back from the injured list.
He also praised Hinch for being able to bring his team together.
Recently, he was forced to bench Javier Baez for losing count of the outs.
O’Dowd believes the way he handled that lit a fire under the team and got them on track.
Baez is also hitting .338 since that incident, as Robert Flores pointed out.
NEXT: Miguel Cabrera Received A Generous Gift On Sunday