Detroit Tigers reach 17th postseason in franchise history: Here’s their playoff history

The Detroit Tigers are back in the hunt for the World Series trophy for the first time in a decade.

The Tigers clinched a berth in the MLB postseason by locking up an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win Friday over the Chicago White Sox). The improbable run will continue into October as the Tigers look to carry over their red-hot play from the last two months into the postseason.

The Tigers will finish as the fifth or sixth seed in the AL, meaning they will be on the road for a best-of-three wild-card series against the Houston Astros or Baltimore Orioles in the franchise’s 17th postseason appearance.

THE CLINCHER: Detroit Tigers clinch AL playoff berth in 4-1 W; White Sox set MLB record with 121st L

Here is a look back at all 16 of the Tigers’ previous MLB playoff appearances to see what could be in store for the rest of this run.

2014

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The most recent playoff run was the end of the Tigers’ peak at the beginning of the 2010s. The 90-72 team won the AL Central for a fourth straight year but was bounced, 3-0, in the ALDS by the Orioles. The Tigers’ star-studded roster fell as the No. 3 seed. A 3-2 deficit in the seventh inning of Game 1 turned into a 12-3 loss, a 6-3 lead in the eighth inning of Game 2 turned into a 7-6 loss and the bats stayed quiet all together in a 2-1 loss in Game 3. It was the last hurrah for a team with a rotation including four past or future Cy Young winners — Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, David Price and Rick Porcello — and a lineup led by players such as Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler.

2013

The 2013 Tigers won the AL Central at 93-69 and faced the Oakland Athletics, the No. 2 seed, in the ALDS for the second straight year. The series went five games and Verlander delivered one of his iconic performances: eight shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. Cabrera, meanwhile, hit the go-ahead home run in a 3-0 Game 5 clincher. But the Tigers ran into heartbreak in the ALCS, losing to the eventual World Series champion Boston Red Sox in six games despite throwing a combined one-hitter in Game 1 and taking a 5-1 lead into the eighth inning of Game 2. The Tigers, in Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland’s final season, nabbed two prominent awards in 2013. Cabrera won a second straight AL MVP after hitting .348 with 44 home runs and 137 RBIs while Scherzer won the AL Cy Young with a 21-3 record, 2.90 ERA and 240 strikeouts. Other key players included Verlander, Prince Fielder, Doug Fister, Jose Iglesias, Austin Jackson and Aníbal Sánchez.

2012

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The franchise’s most recent World Series appearance came 12 years ago after the Tigers won the AL Central at 88-74 and put together a run through the AL bracket. They faced the Athletics first and jumped ahead 2-0 on a Don Kelly walk-off in Game 2, but lost Games 3 and 4 to set up a Game 5 rubber match, which Detroit won 6-0 on a Verlander gem. The momentum carried over to the ALCS, as the Tigers, led by ALCS MVP Delmon Young, swept a Yankees team featuring Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and old friend Curtis Granderson. But the Fall Classic was a chilly one as the bats fell quiet in a 4-0 sweep by the San Francisco Giants that featured two shutouts. The 2012 team featured a lot of the same core as the next two seasons led by Verlander, Scherzer and Cabrera. Cabrera won his first MVP and the AL Triple Crown with a league-leading .330 average, 44 home runs and 139 RBIs. Other notable names on that team included Fielder, Jackson and Alex Avila.

2011

The great run a decade ago started in 2011, powered by a historic Verlander season in which he became the 10th player in baseball history to win MVP and CY Young in the same season. The Tigers finished 95-67, powered by a 44-21 finish, to win the Central and make it to the ALCS. The Tigers beat the Yankees in five games in the ALDS with a 3-2 win in Game 5, holding onto a one-run lead the final four innings. Detroit lost in six games to the Texas Rangers in the ALCS after Nelson Cruz drove in 13 runs in the series, including a walk-off grand slam in Game 2. In addition to the younger core, the 2011 team also featured stars such as Magglio Ordóñez, José Valverde, Brandon Inge and Joaquín Benoit.

2006

Does it feel like ’06 again? The Tigers snapped a 19-year playoff drought with a run still revered nearly two decades later. Three years after setting the AL record for most losses in a season (119), the Tigers went 95-67 but lost the AL Central crown by one game, done in by a five-game losing streak to close the season. They made the postseason as the wild card — back when only one joined division winners in the postseason — beat the Yankees 3-1 in the ALDS and swept the Athletics in the ALCS, capped by Ordóñez’s iconic three-run walk-off home run in Game 4 to reach the Fall Classic. There, the Tigers lost in five games to a team who snuck in late as a wild card and also got hot, the St. Louis Cardinals. Along with Granderson, Inge, Ordóñez and Verlander (the 2006 AL Rookie of the Year), Carlos Guillén, ALCS MVP Placido Polanco, future Hall of Famer Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez and crafty lefty Kenny Rogers were some of the contributors that sparked the run.

1987

The last time the Tigers hunted down a playoff spot like this season came 37 years ago when Detroit closed the regular season with four straight wins, including a sweep of the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, who lost seven straight games to close the year. The Tigers won the East by a two-game margin but fell 4-1 to the AL West-winning Minnesota Twins 4-1 in the ALCS. Pat Sheridan’s two-run home run in Game 3 powered the lone win, but the Twins took Games 1, 2, 4 and 5. The ’87 team was powered by many of the same legends present for the 1984 World Series win, such as manager Sparky Anderson, Kirk Gibson, Lou Whitaker, Willie Hernandez, Chet Lemon, Dan Petry, Larry Herndon, Darrell Evans and future Hall of Famers Alan Trammell and Jack Morris.

1984

This is the team the ’24 Tigers are chasing. The Tigers were the class of baseball 40 years ago with an MLB-best 104-58 record (sparked by a 35-5 start to the year and a no-hitter by Morris), a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS and a five-game triumph over the San Diego Padres to secure the franchise’s fourth and most recent World Series. In the ALCS sweep, Gibson earned MVP for hitting .417 with two RBIs. In the World Series, the Tigers took Game 1, 3-2, thanks to a two-RBI double from Herndon, dropped Game 2, then won three straight at Tiger Stadium. Gibson finished off the World Series with a two-homer performance in Game 5, including the iconic three-run shot off Goose Gossage in the eighth to clinch it. Trammell won World Series MVP for hitting .450 with two home runs and six RBIs. Trammell, Whitaker, Petry, Hernandez, Lemon, Gibson, Morris, Lance Parrish, Dave Bergman and Ruppert Jones were the main pillars.

1984 Detroit Tigers come to life

We unearthed thousands of Free Press photo negatives and one sports writer’s score book to tell the tale of baseball’s greats. “Bless you, boys.”

Brian Kaufman, Detroit Free Press

1972

The 1972 Tigers won the AL East at 86-70 but were bounced 3-2 by the Oakland A’s in the ALCS. The Tigers fell into a 2-0 hole and won two straight at Tiger Stadium, including an extra-inning walk-off by Jim Northrup in Game 4, but Blue Moon Odom and Vida Blue held Detroit to just one run in Game 5 to win 2-1 and advance to a World Series they eventually won. The 1972 team featured Tigers legends such as Northrup, Al Kaline, Norm Cash and Dick McAuliffe and a pitching staff with Mickey Lolich, Tom Timmermann, Woodie Fryman and Joe Coleman.

1968

In the final year before divisional play, the Tigers went an MLB-best 103-59 to win the pennant and reach the World Series. They met the Cardinals, and after falling into a 3-1 hole in the series, won three straight, finished off with a 4-1 win over Bob Gibson in Game 7. In Game 5, the Tigers faced elimination, trailing 3-2 before Willie Horton gunned Lou Brock out at home in the fifth inning and Kaline put them ahead with a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh. Lolich shook off three early runs to complete his second of three complete games in the series. He also pitched a complete game in Game 7 to best Gibson and finish the series. Denny McClain was the AL MVP and Cy Young with a 31-6 record, 28 complete games and 1.96 ERA. Catcher Bill Freehan finished second in MVP voting while Kaline, Horton, Cash, Northrup, McAuliffe, Mickey Stanley and Earl Wilson were key members of the run.

1945

The ’45 Tigers narrowly won the AL with an 88-65-2 record, buoyed by the return of slugger Hank Greenberg from the military, and faced the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. AL MVP Hal Newhouser picked up wins in the Tigers’ final two victories, Games 5 and 7. In Game 7, the Tigers jumped ahead 5-0 in the top of the first inning on the back of a three-RBI double from Paul Richards, while Newhouser scattered 10 hits for three runs in the complete-game win. Newhouser won MVP over teammate Eddie Mayo after going 25-9 with a 1.81 ERA and 212 strikeouts. Greenberg, Roy Cullenbine, Dizzy Trout and Al Benton were other key pieces for the team.

1940

The ’40 Tigers went 90-64 and lost the World Series in seven games to the Reds. The Tigers led the series 3-2, but were held to just one run in the last two games. Greenberg, the AL MVP, led the team with 41 home runs and 150 RBIs during the season and put up six more RBIs in the World Series while hitting .357, along with six from Pinky Higgins. Bobo Newsom, Schoolboy Rowe and future Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer were some of the main names on the ’40 Tigers.

1935

The very first World Series title in franchise history came 89 years ago when the Tigers took down the Cubs in six games. The Tigers won Games 2 through 4 and then took Game 6, 4-3, on a walk-off from Goose Goslin in the bottom of the ninth. They won the pennant at 93-58 led by an MVP campaign from Greenberg with 36 home runs and 168 RBIs, along with Gehringer, Row, manager Mickey Cochrane, Tommy Bridges and Billy Rogell.

1934

The Tigers came up just short a year prior, falling to the Cardinals in seven games after going 101-53. The teams traded wins in the first four games before Detroit jumped ahead 3-2 and the Cardinals won Game 6, 4-3, and Game 7, 11-0. On one day of rest, Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean held the Tigers scoreless on six hits while Detroit’s pitchers were blitzed for seven runs in the seventh inning. The ’34 team was virtually identical to the ’35 team that finally got over the hump. Cochrane, also the manager, took home MVP over a second-place Gehringer, who led baseball in hits and runs. Greenberg finished sixth with 26 home runs and 139 RBIs.

1909

The final World Series of the early Tigers’ run ended with an 8-0 loss in Game 7 to the Pittsburgh Pirates, shutout by Babe Adams. Before that, though, the Tigers took the AL pennant with a 98-54 record that featured a 38-20 record in August, September and October. Future Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, still just 22 years old, led the franchise with a .377 average and nine homers, while chipping in 10 triples, 10 homers and 107 RBIs to win the AL Triple Crown. George Mullin, who would throw the franchise’s first no-hitter in 1912, was the staff ace, going 29-8 with a 2.22 ERA in 303⅔ innings.

1908

A World Series rematch with the Cubs, after going 90-63 to take the AL pennant, went poorly, as the Tigers fell, 4-1, in what ended up being Chicago’s last title until 2016. Cobb had an off year, by his standards, though he did lead the AL in batting average (.324), doubles (36), triples (20) and RBIs (108). He fell three homers short of the Triple Crown, though, with four homers to teammate Sam Crawford’s seven.

1907

117 years ago, the Tigers reached the first World Series in franchise history, albeit in just the seventh year of the franchise, and just the fourth World Series ever between the AL and NL. Cobb, MLB’s all-time leader in batting average, was the main catalyst of those teams Crawford, Ed Killian, Bill Donovan and Donie Bush were some of the other big names from this run. Game 1 of the Series in Chicago went 13 innings before being declared a 3-3 tie, a first in World Series play. The Tigers then lost the next two games in Chicago and the final two of the Series in Detroit, with Cobb going jsut 4-for-20 with one extra-base hit.

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press covering the city’s professional teams, the state’s two flagship universities and more. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.