Detroit, MI
Detroit Tigers Face a Crucial Series Against Baltimore Orioles
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.
Detroit Tigers fans get pictures with tiger statue at Comerica Park
Detroit Tigers fans get their picture taken with the tiger statue outside Comerica Park on April 3, 2026 for Opening Day.
To many people, it makes no sense. Here was the seventh game of a 162-game baseball season, the Detroit Tigers had lost four of the six already played, yet seemingly the entire city converged on downtown Friday, April 3, to get into the stadium, or sit outside the stadium, or just hang around the stadium.
They stuffed bars and restaurants. They drank beer despite the early hour. They wore orange or blue clothing and caps with an Old English “D.” There is no way to count how many total people swarmed the streets, or how many of them had called in sick to their jobs to be here.
We call it Opening Day, and in Detroit it is virtually a holiday. Not elsewhere. Other cities don’t make this fuss. To many of them, going wild for the seventh game of the season makes no sense.
And that’s OK.
In fact, it’s perfect.
Far from the only nonstandard tradition
Opening Day made me think about how many things we do around these parts that are uniquely ours, traditions that we cherish but which don’t necessarily travel.
The Dream Cruise. It began as a charity event, and is now is a fixture on the August calendar. But if you tell someone in Boston or San Diego that thousands of people sit in lawn chairs along a busy boulevard to watch old cars drive past, you’ll get laughed out of the room.
The Independence Day Fireworks. Yes, other cities have them. No, they don’t have them in late June. We do. Supposedly we do this because of our proximity to Canada, which celebrates on a different schedule. Of course, Canada Day is July 1, and America’s holiday is July 4, so someone should explain how June got in there.
But, hey, maybe they shouldn’t. It’s our tradition. And that’s what’s important.
Sweetest Day. Hate to break this to area lovers, but that’s not really a thing in the most of the country.
Paczki Day – yes, it’s a way to celebrate Fat Tuesday, but it’s much bigger here in the Midwest than in other regions.
The Charity Preview at the Detroit Auto Show. That’s like the Motor City’s Met Gala, but it doesn’t exist elsewhere. And auto shows in general are not the must-see events they are in our town.
Traditions like throwing octopi at hockey games, singing “born and raised in South Detroit!” chanting “Onward Down the Field” when the Lions score or yelling “DEEE-TROIT BAS-KET-BALLLLLL!” are things you will not witness anywhere else.
And it may be a hot dog everywhere else, but it’s a coney here.
If all of this makes us quirky, well, quirky we should be. Because in a world of increasing homogenization, local traditions are in peril.
A taste for tradition
Consider what the internet and multinational corporations desire. Everyone on the same page at the same time.
Apple wants the whole world to line up at a given hour for the new iPhone. Taylor Swift wants the whole world hanging on her latest release. Local coffee shops get swallowed by chains. Local eateries surrender to fast food.
As someone who travels for work, I can tell you, decades ago when you went to the South, you heard different music on the radio. You went out West, you saw different retail outlets. You felt like an outsider. You felt like you were someplace new and wondrous.
Today, Nashville looks like Austin looks like Raleigh looks like Phoenix. There’s your P.F. Chang’s next to your Cheesecake Factory. There’s your Best Buy alongside your Costco. The goal of global economies is scale, big numbers, national – even international – audiences. Everyone wants to be the Super Bowl.
But what of the joy of regional customs? Local traditions? The food you can only get here, the music you can only hear there. As the internet shrinks our distance, it also fades our individuality.
When I was a kid in Philadelphia, they had a parade every New Year’s Day, where string bands marched and people wore these crazy costumes, painted their faces, and competed in different categories. It was called the Mummers Parade, and in my youthful naivete, I thought every city did this. Later I realized it was unique to Philly, and in fact, many outsiders found it silly.
Well, as Paul McCartney sang, it isn’t silly at all. Local color shades who we are. Local activities give us a sense of identity. Local traditions bind us to our hometowns, and our shared memories with neighbors.
So we can ask “Did you go to Opening Day?” around here and people know what we mean. There’s something precious about that. In an age of everyone buying from Amazon and eating at McDonald’s, we should fiercely protect what makes us unique.
So yeah, wearing a “Trammell” jersey or telling your friends, “I’ll meet you at Mario’s before the game for the lobster buffet” may make no sense to outsiders. Good. It’s not supposed to.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on x.com.
Alex Avila: Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander is leader as teammate
On “Days of Roar,” former Detroit Tigers catcher Alex Avila shares how legendary pitcher Justin Verlander has matured in his clubhouse leadership.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander has been placed on the 15-day injured list with left hip inflammation.
Keider Montero will be called up and is expected to start Sunday, April 5, against the St. Louis Cardinals at Comerica Park.
It will be retroactive to April 1, so the earliest Verlander will be eligible to return is April 16.
Verlander has already pitched once this season, although his first start was forgettable. He gave up five runs off six hits in 3⅔ innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He struggled with his command, throwing 80 pitches (53 for strikes) while recording one strikeout with two walks. Since then, he has worked on his mechanics.
“Head position,” he said Saturday. “Trying to be a little more deceptive and stay in line a little bit longer.”
The Diamondbacks hit Verlander hard, making contact with seven balls that featured an exit velocity over 100 mph.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Verlander said. “I hope it’s not like last year … months trying to find it. Hopefully I find it a little quicker than that. But yeah, you know, I think talking to analysts and those guys and the stuff is actually pretty good, so not too far away. I hope.”
Verlander, 43, signed a one-year deal with the Tigers this offseason, returning to the franchise he spent his first 13 seasons with. He made 29 starts in 2025 for the San Francisco Giants.
And he was expected to start Sunday night against the Cardinals in Comerica Park in front of a national audience on “Sunday Night Baseball” on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service.
Montero was optioned to Triple-A by the Tigers on March 4, with the franchise planning on him as their No. 6 starter in the rotation.
“We’ve got to protect our rotation,” Hinch said when Montero was sent to Toledo. “For him, defining the role where we felt like he can help us the most was going to be, at some point, in our rotation. Whether that’s getting called up as a sixth starter, or god forbid anything happens, he’s equipped to handle that, and the only way to do that is get him going and building him as a starter.”
In 2025, Montero registered a 4.37 ERA with 31 walks and 72 strikeouts across 90⅔ innings in 20 games (12 starts) for the Tigers. He also logged a 5.91 ERA across 42⅔ innings in 10 games (eight starts) for Triple-A Toledo.
Montero has made one start for Toledo, throwing four scoreless innings against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on March 29. He struck out three with one walk.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff
Detroit, MI
‘Downtown Takeover’ in Detroit leads to several teens being detained, dozens in the streets
Crowd of teens out past curfew detained downtown
The incident was not random, as ‘Ceasefire Detroit’ announced that there were talks of a “Downtown Takeover” involving kids and teens. Throughout Friday evening, videos from social media showed large groups of teens running around in the downtown area past curfew.
DETROIT (FOX 2) – Dozens of teens swarmed Downtown Detroit, leading to a heavy police presence in the area.
What we know:
The incident was not random, as ‘Ceasefire Detroit’ announced that there were talks of a “Downtown Takeover” involving kids and teens. Throughout Friday evening, videos from social media showed large groups of teens running around in the downtown area past curfew.
Detroit police say a gun was fired during the commotion but no one was hurt. Police are working to determine who fired the shot. Police sources also told FOX 2 that officials have been tracking the kids and teens around the city all night.
Meanwhile, officials have been detaining teens, but due to the large number of people, they have been placed on buses.
What we don’t know:
It is unknown if anyone got hurt or how many people were detained/arrested. FOX 2 will update this report when we learn more.
Watch FOX 2 Detroit LIVE:
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