2006 Detroit Tigers Season - Regular Season

Regular Season

The Detroit Tigers were baseball's surprise success story of 2006. After years of futility, including an AL-record 119 losses in 2003, the 2006 season had the Tigers surging to the top of the major league standings in May, a position they did not relinquish until the final day of the season. The play of veterans like Kenny Rogers and Todd Jones, the emergence of previously unestablished players Curtis Granderson, Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames, and significant production from erstwhile All-Stars Iván Rodríguez, Magglio Ordóñez and Carlos Guillén all contributed to the team's success.

A great deal of credit was also given to manager Jim Leyland. On April 17, after an uninspiring 10-2 loss at home to the Cleveland Indians dropped the team's record to 7-6, the manager launched into a tirade against the team about its lack of effort, telling the media, "We stunk. They were already on the plane to Oakland." It appeared to light a fire under the players, spurring them on to a stretch in which they won 28 of 35 games. Leyland repeatedly preached the concept of playing hard for nine full innings, and the players took up that mantra, as evidenced not just by their words but also by the team's propensity for late-inning clutch hits, rallies and comebacks.

Statistically, the biggest factor in the team's success was its pitching, which led the major leagues in ERA and shutouts. Rookie Justin Verlander won the AL Rookie of the Year Award, and fellow starters Kenny Rogers, Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson, as well as rookie reliever Joel Zumaya, all had noteworthy seasons. There was concern when starter Mike Maroth had to undergo surgery early in the season, but his replacement Zach Miner proved to be adequate.

The Tigers' newfound success attracted a new generation of fans, many of whom who had never seen winning baseball in Detroit before. Detroit hit 16 home runs in their first four games, the most ever by any team in their first four games of the season. Tigers fans traveled to road games in large numbers, most notably at the interleague series with the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field from June 16–18. The crowd could be heard chanting "Let's Go Tigers!" throughout all three games, all of which were Detroit victories.

The major doubt many fans and pundits had was whether the Tigers could compete against other top-tier American League teams. Early in the season, the team lost series to the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, and lost five of six games to the reigning World Series champion (and AL Central rival) Chicago White Sox. However, on July 20, at a game which featured a particularly stirring rendition of the national anthem by local opera singer Eugene Zweig, and a standing-room-only crowd that included actor Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard, the Tigers beat White Sox pitching ace José Contreras to take the series two games to one from the White Sox, the team's first series victory against an upper-echelon AL team in 2006. In their next two series, against the AL West division-leading Oakland Athletics, and the red-hot Minnesota Twins, who were 34-8 over their previous 42 games, the Tigers also won two out of three.

On July 31, Tigers management traded minor-league pitcher Brian Rogers to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for left-handed hitting and three-time All Star first baseman Sean Casey. The move added a left-handed bat to the lineup, especially necessary after Dmitri Young was released in September.

On August 7, the Tigers were 40 games above .500 (76-36) and cruising. They would lose their next five games, and the last six weeks of the season were punctuated by a nosedive, as Plácido Polanco's separated shoulder and suddenly silent bats led to a 19-31 record in the last 50 games of the season.

Only the big cushion built in the summer saved the Tigers from what would have been baseball's most statistically infamous collapse, as they clinched a playoff berth on September 24 with an 11-4 win over the Kansas City Royals. But even that cushion couldn't save a division title. On October 1, despite a rare relief appearance from Kenny Rogers, the Tigers fell out of the top spot in the American League Central with a 10-8 extra-inning loss to the Royals in their last regular season game. Detroit lost their last five games, all at home, against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Royals.

The loss made the Tigers the wild card entrant in the American League Playoffs; their opening-round opponent would be the New York Yankees. The Tigers ended the regular season with a 95-67 record.