Throughout the 2024 regular season, the Detroit Tigers seemed to get more than their fair share of clutch relief-pitching performances. But, which ones stood out as being particularly “gutsy?” What had the best balance of facing high-leverage at-bat situations and giving the Tigers a chance to win the game? And, most importantly, which ones made you clench various muscles in your anatomy until you became mildly to wildly uncomfortable?
Methodology
I looked at all the pitchers that made a relief appearance for the Tigers in 2024 — minus Zack McKinstry’s relief outing in a blowout, that probably wasn’t going to make any kind of list like this — and examined two key statistics from Baseball Reference:
- Win Probability Added (WPA): How much did the pitching appearance contribute to winning (or losing) a game?