Detroit Tigers put themselves in 'great position' with above .500 record in April
Slow starts have plagued the Detroit Tigers in recent seasons, but that hasn't been the case so far in 2024.
After the first full month of the 2024 season, the Tigers are above .500 in the win/loss column, bucking recent trends of stumbling out of the opening gate. After splitting Tuesday's doubleheader with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Tigers are 17-13 on the first day of May, the first time they've had a winning record after April since the 2016 season when they went 13-10.
"It's always good to start out strong, in the past we haven't," said outfielder Riley Greene, who is coming off homers in both doubleheader games. "It's good to be able to turn that around and win the month of April."
The Tigers went 14-13 in the month of April after sweeping the Chicago White Sox to start the season at the end of March. The last time the Tigers started at least even through April was 2017 after going 12-12 in the opening month and on Wednesday, they have a chance to win a fourth consecutive series in the rubber match with St. Louis.
The Tigers' 17 wins are the second-most in franchise history by the start of May, just behind the 1984 World Series winning squad who went into May with an 18-2 record and a 104-58 record at the end of the regular season.
"I think it's set us back in the past, how we've started the year, so we've put ourselves in a great position to take off from here," outfielder Kerry Carpenter said.
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Since A.J. Hinch became the team's manager before the 2021 season, April has not been their month. The Tigers went 8-19 in April 2021, 7-13 in April 2022 and 10-16 in April 2023. The Tigers turned it on after their slow start last year to finish 78-84 overall and finished nine games back of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central.
"Last year, if we had a good April and a pretty good May we'd probably be in a different spot in the playoffs last year," catcher Jake Rogers said. "So we know what we need to do. And winning each month is crucial. Winning each series, winning each day and it turns into a winning month so that's great."
Hinch said during his first season in Detroit that winning months and stacking those months was the key to having a winning season overall, but on Wednesday he said his focus remains on winning each series. Before the series finale against the Cardinals, Hinch said he is "obviously proud" of the Tigers' start so far, but he was only focused on how to win the game of the day so the Tigers could win its fourth straight series.
"I haven't given it a ton of thought," Hinch said. "I don't really have milestones. I mean, it's just a matter of trying to win these series."
The conversation of turning the successful games and series overall into a successful month has been something Hinch has heard the players talk about during the first month of the season. Dating back to last season, the Tigers have had a winning record in four straight calendar pages, though two are a small sample size; September 2023 (17-10), October 2023 (1-0), March 2024 (3-0) and April 2024 (14-13).
The goal remains to win series and continue to stay the course that led to the success in April, not focus on any set goals over a time period longer than a single series or game.
"In that regard, they are starting to get it that it's our challenge," Hinch said. "It's not a milestone or creating a certain something, whether it's winning April or a target of some sorts.
"The target is to win as many series as you can," Hinch said. "We got a lot of room for improvement. We've also come a long way so I think the challenge for us is to just stay the course of how we approach each series and how we approach and each week and homestands and roadstands."
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The Tigers' path to a winning record so far has been a winding one. The Tigers have a narrow plus-7 run differential and have been involved in 11 games decided by one run already (seven wins, four losses).
"I think it's prepared us to be in big situations," Carpenter said. "We'd like to pull away a little more than we do but at least we are improving from the situation we're in."
Riley Greene's small swing thought that's leading to homers
Greene has been on a tear in the last 10 games for the Tigers with 11 hits in 45 at-bats (.244 average), four home runs, seven RBIs and seven walks.
Greene credited a small swing reminder, "staying in his legs" or keeping his weight loaded, as part of the reason why he's realized more success the last two weeks and been able to consistently lift the ball in the air.
"That's literally the number one goal, stay in my legs, because when I swing, I tend to come up out of my legs," Greene said. "So, (I) just keep in mind keeping my back foot planted and staying in there because when you come up, your barrel leaks and you get that groundball."
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He has taken on multiple roles in the top half of the batting order, including hitting lead-off for Game 1 of the doubleheader Tuesday and hitting cleanup for Game 2. Hinch said his goal with the lineup is to match the opposing team's starter and bullpen options for that specific game while getting Greene as many at-bats as possible.
"I don't see a batting order spot for Riley Greene," Hinch said. "I see a well-rounded, exceptional major league player and wherever we deploy that is how we feel like we can win that day."
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers post team's best record through April since 2016
