Detroit Tigers

Miguel Cabrera fought through the last month of the season and then the playoffs while dealing with an amorphously defined injury.

Heading into each respective League Championship Series, the Detroit Tigers felt like the team that most needed to capture a World Championship in 2013.

The year still looms there, like the cheese that stands alone.

1984.

It used to be 1968. That was the year that all Tigers fans would reference, sometimes happily, sometimes wistfully, sometimes pessimistically.

It seemed like we waited eons after the Tigers' 1968 World Series triumph for that feeling to come again. But it was only 16 years, which in retrospect is nothing, really.

It's impossible to imagine the opening three games of the American League Championship Series playing out any better for the Detroit Tigers. And yet, it's impossible to imagine the outcomes being any worse.

Despite a third straight unequivocally dominant effort by a starting pitcher, the Tigers somehow trail the Boston Red Sox two games to one.

After a dramatic two-game split in Boston, the Detroit Tigers return home for a crucial Game 3 in the first of three consecutive games to be played at Comerica Park.

Despite a late-game collapse in which Detroit allowed five Boston runs over the final two innings of Sunday’s Game 2 loss, a combined one-hitter from Tigers’ pitchers in Game 1 gives Detroit a theoretical chance to win the ALCS at home.

Just two days ago, the Detroit Tigers blew a 5-0 lead and allowed the Boston Red Sox to pull even in the 2013 ALCS. Bouncing back from that type of devastating defeat is difficult to say the least.

Although Jim Leyland's club has the benefit of returning to the friendly confines of Comerica Park for Game 3 on Tuesday, there are several keys Detroit would do well to adhere to.

The dust has finally settled after the Boston Red Sox mounted a glorious comeback against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway in Game 2. The ALCS is officially knotted up at one game apiece as both teams travel to Detroit for three more meetings as they decide who will represent the American League in the 2013 MLB World Series. 

MLB's revised instant replay rules aren't in play yet, but replay certainly played a role in a critical situation during Game 4 of the ALDS between the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A's Tuesday evening.

When the Detroit Tigers take the field at Comerica Park for Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Tuesday afternoon, they won't just facing Oakland and the specter of elimination, they'll be staring an unflattering history in the face.

Since 1972, Detroit has eventually succumbed to elimination in the postseason every single time they've faced it.

Max Scherzer earned it.