What’s most interesting, or maybe unsettling, about the Tigers’ recent ills is the chatter.
It has been all about one man. All about Brad Ausmus.
He didn’t save his job with Sunday’s victory, which saw a supposedly dead-in-the-water club rally three times to beat the Padres, 7-5, at Petco Park.
In fact, Ausmus wasn’t in danger. The Tigers don’t believe their manager is their weak link. His boss, Tigers general manager Al Avila, doesn’t buy it, and neither does Tigers owner Chris Ilitch.
And they’re right.
This year’s Tigers team is roughly where the 1973 and ’74 Tigers were five and six years after Detroit won a World Series in 1968.