Seattle — Entering play Monday night, every team in the American League was within 4 1/2 games of a playoff spot. Including the Tigers, who were 4 1/2 out in the Central Division and three back in the wild-card race.
And there is still more than three months left in the season.
“Lot of parity,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “It just takes one month of getting hot to make a difference at the end of September. I didn’t know it was (that bunched up). It’s going to make it much more difficult for teams to make decisions.