Leading Off: The Tigers crushed the Indians and Ubaldo Jimenez Monday night 14-0. Doug Fister was his usual phenomenal self: eight innings, three hits, no walks, nine strikouts. And, 74 percent of his 109 pitches were strikes.

ALDS Start Time (Maybe): Matt Dery (@deryNBA) posted this on Twitter: “According to reports, Tigers would either host Bos or TB at 5 pm Friday for Game 1 or play at NYY at 8:30 fri night.” If it’s a 5 o’clock game, looks like I’m leaving work early.

The Tigers enter tonight’s game versus Cleveland having won 28 of their last 37 games dating back to Aug. 19, a .757 winning percentage — tops in the majors.

On this date in 1999, the Tigers played their final game at Tiger Stadium — an 8-2 win over the Royals. Homers by Karim Garcia, Luis Polonia and Robert Fick power the Tigers behind Brian Moehler.

We knew Doug Fister was good, but this is ridculous. From Elias Sports Bureau:

Remember at the trading deadline when the biggest-name pitcher moved was Ubaldo Jimenez? On Monday he was outpitched by a player whose trade received considerably less attention, Doug Fister. Fister improved to 8-1 since joining Detroit, making him only the fourth pitcher in the post-WWII Era to have at least eight wins with no more than one loss for a team after pitching for another major-league team earlier that season. The three others: Randy Johnson (10-1 for the 1998 Astros, after starting with the Mariners); Doyle Alexander (9-0 for the 1987 Tigers after starting with the Braves); and Rick Sutcliffe (16-1 for the 1984 Cubs after starting with the Indians.) Fister will end the season with a seven-game winning streak and Justin Verlander has won his last 12 decisions. They’re the first teammates to end a season with each on a winning streak of seven or more games, mainly or exclusively as a starting pitcher, since 1993, when Jason Bere and Wilson Alvarez of the White Sox each won their final seven decisions. The pair preceding Bere and Alvarez was Doyle Alexander (9) and Walt Terrell (8) for the 1987 Tigers.

I was talking to a friend of mine today about possible successors to Ozzie Guillen and we did a quick review of higher-profile bench coaches around the majors. One name he brought up was Kirk Gibson’s bench coach, Alan Trammell. While I fully support Tram getting another shot at managing, I can’t abide by him taking over the White Sox. Oh, and did you see where former Tigers manager Buddy Bell is in the mix for the Sox’ gig? Oy vey.

Happy 67th Birthday to Gary Sutherland. He hit .251 with a .295 on-base percentage with the Tigers from 1974-76 and played primarily at second base.

Checking in on trade pieces: In 31 games with the Mariners since the July 29 trade, Casper Wells is hitting .216 with seven home runs, 15 RBI and a .742 OPS. Meanwhile Charlie Furbush is 3-7 with a 6.62 ERA in 10 starts, and Chance Ruffin is 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in 12 appearances.

Why should you keep watching baseball this week?, asks Rob Neyer. One reason he offers is to see if Jose Valverde can keep up his perfect-save routine:

Valverde’s been phenomenal this season, and is only seven saves from tying Tom Gordon’s American League for consecutive saves (over different seasons). And the best part is that Valverde’s doing all this with lower strikeout and higher walk rates than his career norms.

Wanna bet he blows one in October? I don’t know. I predicted Lidge would blow a postseason save after his perfect 2008, but he didn’t and the Phillies won the World Series.

On this date in 1986, Jack Morris shut out the Yankees 1-0 in 10 innings, raising his record to 20-8 and snapped Don Mattingly’s hitting streak at 24 consecutive games.

I’ve had seller’s remorse on Omar Infante for a couple of years now — and especially since Placido Polanco was set free after the ’09 season. Infante just signed a two-year, $8 million extension with the Marlins. He enters tonight’s game batting .279 with seven home runs, 49 RBIs and only eight errors in 146 games. He’d look pretty good playing second for the Tigers these days, no?

Finally, Happy 64th Birthday to Meat Loaf.

78-75, 3rd Place; 14 GB

Today’s Game

Tigers vs. Twins | 7:05 p.m. ET – Comerica Park | On the air: FSD/AM 1270 and 97.1 FM

Pitching Matchup

Jeremy Bonderman (8-9, 4.92 ERA) vs. Carl Pavano (17-11, 3.60 ERA)

Yesterday’s Results

Tigers 10 – Twins 1

• W: Justin Verlander (18-8)
• L: Francisco Liriano (14-9)
• HR: Miguel Cabrera (36), Jhonny Peralta (15), Casper Wells (4)

Tigers History Lesson

Today’s Birthdays

• Steve Wapnick, 45

• Ed Putman, 57

• Sal Butera, 58

On this Date in Tigers History

• 1998 — In the third inning of a 7-5 Tiger win, Toronto starter Woody Williams serves up consecutive homers to Juan Encarnacion and Frank Catalanotto, walks a batter, and tees up another for Tony Clark.

• 1988 — Jack Morris one-hits the Orioles in the first game of a doubleheader sweep, winning 2-1,
  for his 14th victory. Doyle Alexander scatters six hits over eight innings for his 14th win of the year, 7-4, in the finale.

• 1971 — With rookie catcher Tim Hosley hitting two homers and driving in five runs, the Tigers trip the Yankees, 10-7. Les Cain pitches six innings for the win. Cain finishes with a 10-9 record with 145 innings, but contends he is forced to pitch by Manager Billy Martin while he has a sore arm. Cain later claims that it did permanent damage to his arm and he sues the Tigers. In a landmark decision, the Michigan Bureau of Workman’s Compensation will order the Tigers to pay Cain $111 a month for the rest of his life. A lump sum payment is later agreed upon.

• 1955 — Al Kaline becomes the youngest batting champ in history, as he wins the American League crown at age 20.

• 1952 — Hal Newhouser wins his 200th game — his last win for the Tigers, who will release him in early 1953.

• 1908 — Ed Summers pitches two complete-game wins over the A’s, winning the opener, 7-2. The second game goes 10 innings with another rookie, Biff Schlitzer, that ends 1-0 on a Claude Rossman drive for
  an inside-the-park home run. Summers allows just two hits. With the White Sox idle, the Tigers move to a half-game out of first.

77-75, 3rd Place; 15 GB

Today’s Game

Off Day

Yesterday’s Results

Tigers 4 – Royals 2

• W: Max Scherzer (12-10)
• L: Kyle Davies (8-11)

Tigers History Lesson

Today’s Birthdays

• Jim Morrison, 58

• Jim Rooker, 68

On this Date in Tigers History

• 2000 — Aurelio Rodriguez was killed in southwest Detroit at age 52. From Baseball-Prospectus.com’s Bullpen:
  

  While he was walking on Detroit’s southwest side at 2:00 in the afternoon with an unidentified woman, a car swerved and jumped the sidewalk and ran over Rodriguez before hitting a tree. The driver of the car had suffered a stroke.

• 1987 — Bill Madlock collects his 2,000th career hit as the Tigers beat Boston, 4-0, on Doyle Alexander’s two-hitter.

• 1984 — Sparky Anderson becomes the first manager ever to win 100 games in a season with two different clubs as the Tigers beat the Yankees, 4-1. He led the Reds to 100-win seasons in 1970, 1975 and 1976.

• 1933 — Despite the fifth-place Tigers’ 5-3 win over the Browns, manager Bucky Harris submits his resignation. Babe Ruth’s name will be prominent in the newspapers as a possible replacement.

• 1915 — In Philadelphia, Ty Cobb steals his 90th base of the year, and only 300 fans are on hand to see it.

• 1905 — Rookie Ty Cobb, 18, hits his first home run, off Cy Falkenberg, an inside-the-park blow, in an 8-5 loss at Washington.

67-68, 3rd Place; 11.5 GB

Today’s Game

Tigers @ Royals | 7:05 p.m. ET – Kauffman Stadium | On the air: FSD/AM 1270 and 97.1 FM

Pitching Matchup

Rick Porcello (7-11, 5.20 ERA) vs. Bruce Chen (9-7, 4.76 ERA)

Yesterday’s Results

Tigers 9 – Royals 5 (11 innings)

• W: Ryan Perry (3-5)
• L: Jesse Chavez (2-3)
• HR: Ryan Raburn (12)

Tigers History Lesson

Today’s Birthdays

• Doyle Alexander, 60

On this Date in Tigers History

• 1986 — Tigers Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg died at age 75.

• 1979 — Norman “Turkey” Stearnes, a standout slugger for the Detroit Stars of the Negro League, died at the age of 78. He earned his spot in baseball history as he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.

• 1989 — In a season with few highlights, Fred Lynn hits his 300th career home run to help the Tigers to a 5-1 win over the Royals.

• 1945 — Long-time Yankee batting practice pitcher Paul Schreiber, who last pitched in the major leagues in 1923
  and the minors in 1931, relieves for the Yankees against Tigers in a rout. Schreiber gives up no hits in 3-1/3 innings, but the Tigers’ Dizzy Trout wins 10-0.

Of all the scenarios facing the Tigers for the final weekend, one was the most cut and dried: sweep the Blue Jays, win the division.

Game one of the decisive series took place on a cold Friday night. A crowd of 45,167 witnessed a rematch of the previous Sunday, Doyle Alexander and Jim Clancy.

The Jays scored first in the top of the second on Manny Lee’s three-run homer to right-center. In the bottom of that same inning the Tigers scored two runs of their own on a Chet Lemon single and a home run by rookie outfielder Scott Lusader.

In the third, Detroit took the lead. Alan Trammell hit his 28th homer of the year. Then Darrell Evans walked, and Matt Nokes singled moving Evans to third. Evans scored when Chet Lemon grounded into a double play. The Tigers led 4-3.

Alexander gave the Tigers yet another strong outing. Despite throwing nearly 30 pitches in the first inning alone, he settled down to yield just three runs on seven hits over seven and two-thirds innings. Five double plays helped Alexander raise his record to 9-0 and Mike Henneman earn his seventh save.

“I struggled like a big dog tonight,” Alexander told the Free Press’s Joe Lapointe. “Mike Henneman is the reason we won the ball game. We wouldn’t be where we are without Mike Henneman.”

A week earlier the Tigers were reeling, watching their title hopes evaporate. Now Detroit was tied for first place with
two games remaining.

“We’re feeling good about ourselves,” Evans said to Lapointe.

Tomorrow: Morris and Flanagan Face Off

• Part 1 – Tigers and Jays Battle for ’87 Division Title
• Part 2 – Showdown in Toronto, Game 1
• Part 3 – Game 2 Skips Away
• Part 4 – Bullpen Collapses in Game 3

As the Tigers arrived at Exhibition Stadium for the series finale, they knew what was at stake. The chances of coming back from four-and-a-half game deficit in less than a week bordered on the absurd. If ever there were a must-win game, this was it.

The Tigers turned to Doyle Alexander to stop the bleeding. Toronto looked to right-hander Jim Clancy to bury the Tigers’ fading division title hopes.

Nelson Liriano led off the home half of the first with a single to right and promptly stole second. Eventual league MVP George Bell drove in Liriano for Toronto’s first run. Though he baffled the Jays for the next eight innings, Alexander and the Tigers trailed 1-0 heading into the top of the ninth.

As he had in game two, Blue Jays manager Jimy Williams called on Tom Henke to start the ninth and snuff out any chance of a Tigers comeback. Henke’s first assignment was Kirk Gibson. With two strikes, Gibson connected for a monstrous homer to right, knotting the game at one and giving the Tigers a flicker of hope.

Neither team scored in the tenth, but in the eleventh inning Darrell Evans blasted a home run — farther then Gibson’s — to give the Tigers their first lead of the game.

Alexander lasted into the eleventh, pitching his finest game of the season. Over 10.2 innings, he scattered six hits, allowing just four walks and striking out four.

The Tigers’ lead wouldn’t last. In the bottom half of the eleventh, an error by Alan Trammell and an RBI single by Jesse Barfield tied the game at two.

In the Tigers’ thirteenth, rookie Jim Walewander led off with a walk. Lou Whitaker’s sacrifice advanced Walewander to second. After an intentional walk to Evans, Gibson dropped a single into center scoring Walewander with the go-
ahead run.

Unlike the previous three games, the Detroit bullpen delivered. Mike Henneman, Dickie Noles and Mark Thurmond combined to shut down the Jays for good in the bottom of the thirteenth and allowed the Tigers to escape Toronto just two-and-one-half games back.

In the clubhouse after the game, Gibson summed up the Tigers situation heading into the final week of the season. “Who knows,” he said to the media surrounding his locker. “We might be setting the biggest bear trap of all time.”

Tomorrow: Heading Home with Title Within Reach.

While this plays out, let’s look back at the final two weekends of the 1987 season when the Tigers and Blue Jays squared off for seven heart-pounding, one-run games that would ultimately decide the American League East title.

Today, Part 1.

“I’m telling you, everything is going to come down to our seven games with Toronto.” — Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson, Sept. 21, 1987

Entering the 1987 season, little was expected of the Detroit Tigers. Just three seasons removed from a wire-to-wire championship season, the Tigers were considered mere also-rans in a division filled with potent lineups, solid pitching and the defending League Champions, the Red Sox.

Adding to an already challenging divisional landscape, the Tigers faced life without their All Star catcher and cleanup hitter, Lance Parrish. The Big Wheel rejected the Tigers’ two-year, $2.4 million contract offer and instead signed a one-year $800,000 deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.

That’s why in the first weeks of the 1987 season the story in baseball was not the Detroit Tigers. Hardly. The Milwaukee Brewers’ 13-0 start captivated the baseball world. After 13 games the Tigers had a less-imposing 6-7 record. Twenty games into the season Milwaukee had stormed to 18-2, four games ahead of New York, followed by Toronto (12-8), Baltimore (9-11), Detroit (8-12) and Cleveland (6-14).

The Brewers, though, soon came back to earth. On May 1 the club sat atop the A.L. East with a 19-3 record. Fueled by a horrific stretch that saw the team lose 12 straight and 18 out of 20, Tom Trebelhorn‘s team limped into June at 24-21 and would eventually finish seven games off the pace.

By the middle of May the Tigers’ record was a lackluster 11-19. But whereas Milwaukee’s season had imploded by Memorial Day, the 24-24 Tigers began showing signs of life.

The Tigers Find Their Groove

In June, things started clicking for the Tigers. The loss of Parrish was buffered unexpectedly by slugging catcher Matt Nokes called up from Triple-A Nashville in May. Detroit found more punch on the waiver wire on June 4, when the team signed four-time National League batting champion Bill Madlock who had been released by the Dodgers. Madlock, a career .306 hitter, brought an experienced and still-dangerous bat to a Detroit lineup lacking in right-handed pop.

After acquiring Madlock, the Tigers rolled to a 73-40 record, a .646 winning percentage. Along with shortstop Alan Trammell, who was crafting an MVP-caliber season, Madlock helped catapult the team into contention in the A.L. East.

By July 1, Detroit posted a 41-32 record and on August 1 they were 58-41, good for third place, just a game and a half behind the second-place Blue Jays and three games behind the Yankees.

Over the final two months of the season it became clear that the Tigers were in a three-team race, though the Yankees would eventually fade. But to compete with the pitching-rich Blue Jays, the team needed a B-12 injection for the rotation.

On August 12, the Tigers acquired veteran right-handed pitcher Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves in a trade for minor league prospect John Smoltz.

In Alexander the Tigers had found a complementary arm to a seasoned rotation of Morris, Frank Tanana and Walt Terrell. Alexander posted a perfect 9-0 record in his 11 starts with Detroit.

Heading into the next-to-last weekend of the season, the Tigers and Blue Jays were cruising. Detroit had taken two of three from Boston at Fenway Park and Toronto had swept three in Baltimore.

Then the baseball world turned its attention toward Toronto and a series that could decide the division champion.

Tomorrow: The First Showdown — the Tigers and Jays in Toronto

The Tigers were a half-game out of first place on Sept. 23, 1987, for the finale of a three-game series against Boston. Alexander, who blanked the Red Sox a week earlier, 3-0 at Tiger Stadium, faced off with lefty Bruce Hurst and was untouchable. He allowed singles to the first two batters he faced – Ellis Burks and Marty Barrett – and a two-out walk to Spike Owen in the second and that was it.

Alexander got two runs in the second and one each in the fifth and sixth. Tom Brookens drove in a pair and Alan Trammell knocked home one in the win. (The fourth run was scored on an error.) The Tigers moved on to Toronto for a grueling four-game series for ages against the Blue Jays.

You’ve got to love Baseball-Reference.com; I know I sure do.

Hmm.

Well, it wasn’t as interesting as the 1980 Tigers/White Sox brawl (a.k.a. Cowens v. Farmer Grudge Match), nor as violent as Tigers/White Sox circa 2000. Here’s a refresher on that one:

Sixteen players, coaches and managers suspended. Nine others fined. It was, MLB said, “the biggest mass suspension ever.”

That was the end result of two brawls that erupted at Comiskey Park, one in the seventh inning, the other in the ninth. In the sixth, the Tigers Jeff Weaver hit Carlos Lee with a pitch. In retaliation, Chicago’s starter, Jim Parque, plunked Detroit’s Dean Palmer in the top of the seventh. Palmer charged the mound, throwing his helmet at Parque before the real action started.

…And it wasn’t as wild as Tigers/Twins in 1982, which featured Dave Rozema‘s flying-kung-fu acrobatics on Twins’ John Castino.

What do you think? Take this week’s Pulse Check –>

Other thoughts…

• In last week’s Pulse Check — “What do you make of the Tigers’ recent roster moves?” — “Inspiration” (37%) edged out “desperation” and “exasperation” by a single vote. Time will tell, but so far so good at least from the Alex Avila perspective.

• I think it’s great that the Tigers are injecting some youth into their anemic lineup. I just wish that Wilkin Ramirez had been called up for keeps and not given a ticket on the Toledo shuttle.

• Does anyone else find it strange that the Tigers are skipping down to the Double-A level to tap reinforcements? By “strange” I mean that Triple-A was always where the top talent was — or at least that’s what we were led to believe. Over the past couple of seasons it’s become increasingly common. These are the first times in all the years of my following the Tigers that I remember it happening as a regular practice.

  Of course, the Tigers promoted Andrew Miller from Class A in 2006 and proved that things definitely have changed in baseball. (Miller had a clause in his contract that he would be called up to the majors in ’06.) Oh, and that move also forced me to rethink my lone criticism of baseball reality portrayed in the film “Bull Durham.” I never bought the notion of Ebby Calvin LaLoosh being called up to the big club from the South-Atlantic League. I guess it does happen.

• The last time the Tigers relied on a rookie catcher to fuel a playoff spot was in 1987 when Matt Nokes made everyone forget about Lance Parrish. At least for one season, that is.

Finally, on this date in 1987, the Tigers acquired Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves for minor-league pitcher John Smoltz. Gnash teeth if you must, but it was still a great trade at the time. Few expected Smoltz to emerge as a stud.

Discuss.