If the Detroit Tigers make the playoffs, this is the night we’ll remember

DETROIT – If the Detroit Tigers somehow make the playoffs this season, Monday is the night we’ll all remember.

Jason Benetti and Andy Dirks said it several times throughout the telecast on Bally Sports Detroit: It felt like a playoff atmosphere inside Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

That sentence would have sounded absurd on Aug. 22 — less than a month ago! — when the Tigers had a losing record and sat 9.5 games out of the final wild card spot.

They had just traded away Jack Flaherty and a few other contributors. Reese Olson and Casey Mize were injured. Kerry Carpenter and Riley Greene had just returned from long absences.

Nobody at that moment considered that the Tigers might matter by mid-September — not even the Tigers themselves.

But somehow, some way, here we are.

The Tigers went into Monday night trailing the Twins by 2.5 games. But by 8:30 p.m., it looked like this magical run might finally come to an end.

With the Twins leading the Guardians 3-0 in the middle innings, Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. hit a grand slam off of Olson that put the Tigers in a 4-0 hole.

It sure looked like the Tigers would fall 3.5 games behind the Twins, which would all but extinguish their flickering playoff hopes (especially since they don’t hold the tiebreaker).

But this younger version of the Tigers is never dead. After falling behind 5-1 in the fourth, a Colt Keith homer brought them within a run in the fifth. The Royals scored again in the bottom half, but the Tigers came through with three more in the sixth to take their first lead.

“The Tigers lead, and just as that happened, Cleveland beat Minnesota, 4-3,” Benetti roared on Bally. “The Tigers lead 7-6. Minnesota has lost tonight, and who knows what our next two weeks are going to be like.”

Suddenly, instead of 3.5 back, the Tigers pulled within 1.5 games of a playoff spot. That’s closer than they were to sixth place in the wild card standings on Aug. 22.

Detroit hasn’t been within two games of a playoff spot in the second half since its last winning season in 2016. Even throughout the past four weeks, the Tigers have mostly hovered in the range of three games behind the Twins.

But on Monday, in the matter of about an hour, the Tigers went from the brink of unofficial elimination to the best spot they’ve been in in eight years.

if they cap off this improbable run by sneaking into the postseason, this is the night we’ll remember.