The Detroit Tigers wrapped up their series with the Colorado Rockies on Thursday unable to complete the sweep despite having their ace on the mound. 

Thursday was a tough game for the Tigers, as they not only squandered an opportunity to potentially make up more ground in the Wild Card race, but they also saw Tarik Skubal leave the game earlier than expected after being hit by a comebacker in the sixth inning.

Fortunately, early reports are looking good that it wasn’t anything serious. 

With the loss to the Rockies, Detroit now sits 3.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final spot in the playoffs. This is uncharted waters for this team, and A.J. Hinch is trying to make sure they aren’t pressing too much. 

“We’re all aware,” manager A.J. Hinch said Tuesday to Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press. “We know that the stakes are high. I try to shield that as much as I can from a young team, but the reality is, we know what’s going on.”

Hinch, having experience managing a playoff team with the Houston Astros, is going to help the Tigers immensely down the stretch. He won a World Series with the Astros and knows what it takes to reach that level. 

One of the encouraging things about the Tigers is their mindset.

This is a resilient team after bad losses who believes they can compete with anyone. 

“We think we can win every night and then we come out and test ourselves against somebody different. We’ve talked about wanting to play important baseball. This is important baseball. This is what it looks like. But we need to focus on the next game,” Hinch added.

Coming up next for Detroit is a massive series against the Baltimore Orioles who are currently the top-seeded Wild Card team in the AL.

Earning a series win in this matchup could them could help the Tigers close the gap. 

The first two games of the series will be tough for Detroit, as the Orioles will have arguably their top two pitchers on the mound in Zach Eflin and Corbin Burnes. While Baltimore has a great record overall, they have been very mediocre of late, and it has actualy been the Tigers who have been playing better baseball.

If Detroit can find a way to win this series, they will give themselves a real shot in the American League race.

Quarterback Jared Goff is the proverbial “straw that stirs the drink” for the Detroit Lions.

Since the midway point of the 2022 season, he’s not only experienced his own career renaissance, but he’s also keyed the Lions’ resurgence.

In fact, since Week 9 of the ‘22 campaign, he’s thrown for 48 touchdowns, as opposed to 14 interceptions, and 7,326 yards. Plus, he’s completed 66.74 percent of his passes.

While putting up the solid stat line, the veteran signal-caller has also played an instrumental role in transforming the Lions into a winning organization. Over the course of the past two seasons, he led Detroit to a 21-13 regular season record, a division championship for the first time in 30 years and a playoff win for the first time in 32 years.

Fast-forward to this upcoming Sunday, and the ninth-year pro is certainly a player the Tampa Bay Buccaneers must worry about.

In two games against the Bucs during the 2023 campaign (Week 6 and the divisional round of the playoffs), Goff produced a couple of his very best performances of the season. He threw for a combined 640 yards and four touchdowns, without tossing a single interception. Plus, he completed over 68 percent of his passes and recorded a passer rating of at least 103.5 in both games.

Most importantly, Goff also led Detroit to victories in each of the two aforementioned matchups.

Additionally, the Lions franchise passer has averaged 383 passing yards in four games against the Buccaneers since Todd Bowles joined the organization in 2019. Bowles served as the team’s defensive coordinator from 2019-2021, before replacing Bruce Arians as Tampa Bay head coach. 

Among the 15 quarterbacks with three-or-more starts vs. the Bucs in that time span, Goff has recorded the most passing yards per game, edging out the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott. 

As Bowles admitted Wednesday, Goff is one of the toughest quarterbacks that he has faced in his time as an NFL head coach. 

On Sunday, the Detroit signal-caller, to his advantage, is set to take on a decimated Tampa Bay secondary that will be without cornerback Bryce Hall and All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr. Plus, there is a chance that Buccaneers cornerback Josh Hayes, who was a non-participant in practice Thursday, will also be unable to go in the Week 2 affair.

This doesn’t bode well for the Bucs, which clearly struggled against Goff a season ago. It’s not hard to envision Tampa Bay struggling to limit his production through the air on Sunday.

Big Sean joined Usher for a surprise love fest on Thursday night (Sept. 12) during the first of the Usher: Past Present Future Tour shows at Little Caesars Arena in the rapper’s home town of Detroit.

Usher brought out Big Sean two-thirds of the way into the concert, during “Superstar” — which the latter samples on “Who You Are (Superstar),” a track from his just-released sixth studio album Better Me Than You.

“If we’re gonna come to Detroit we gotta make sure to shout out all the legends,” Usher told the crowd before introducing Big Sean, who spit out some lines from his track followed by his 2015 single “Blessings” as he and Usher waded into the crowd to walk to a second stage at the rear of the arena floor, which was decked out like a strip club, complete with a pole dancer and a bar.

“Big Sean, I don’t mind you taking over the stage, but I gotta make a drink,” Usher said as he got behind the bar, mixing drinks for VIP fans in the area. Big Sean then took over with a rapid-fire mini-set that included portions of “So Good,” “A$$,” “Bounce” Back” and “I Don’t Fuck With You.”

He also told the crowd that Usher had accompanied him to the downtown Detroit Boys and Girls Club earlier in the day to inspect the facility, including its recording studio. Thanking Usher for allowing him to sample “Superstar,” he noted that “me and Usher haven’t done a song together. We made a promise we’re gonna do a song together,” although he did not say when, and even if, that might happen.”

Big Sean did get in a plug for Better Me Than You before heading off and leaving the rest of the show to Usher — who will be back at Little Caesars Arena on Friday, Sept. 13.

It was the latest major performance for Big Sean in his home town this year. He performed on the opening night of the National Football League draft in April and was part of the nationally televised opening concert for the newly renovated Michigan Central, the city’s former railway station, in June. He was performing earlier Thursday evening for a private show at a nearby nightclub, and on Monday, Sept. 16, he’ll be performing “a very special acoustic you” sponsored by Amazon Music at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Usher — who performed the halftime show at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 — kicked of the Past Present Future tour on Aug. 20 in Washington, D.C. and wrap up the North American leg with rescheduled concerts in his home town of Atlanta during December. A European tour begins March 29 in London with the first of 10 dates at the O2 Arena, as well as performances in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.