The Tigers had a large series with the Minnesota Twins over the weekend in Motown. They played an abbreviated doubleheader on Saturday and played on Sunday too, winning all three games. The Twins had just gotten done sweeping the Tigers last weekend, so these were much-needed wins.

It seems every time the Tigers' manager AJ Hinch cuts a player or they make roster moves, the team plays better.

This team plays a lot of small ball, manufacturing runs with stolen bases, bunting and suicide squeezes. I’ve said from the beginning the hiring of new manager AJ Hinch was the perfect hire. He knows how to win and deal with million-dollar ballplayers. Yeah, he enabled the Houston Astros with the sign-stealing fiasco which helped them win a World Series. But he was also kicked out of baseball for a year and was publicly humiliated. So that was then and this is now.

The Tigers are eight games under .500. I know this team will not make the playoffs, but they are much better. That makes me feel that the Tigers are on an upswing. It will be interesting to see what the Tigers do in the offseason. It does seem that the Tigers play better when they cut out the dead weight. We’ll see what the Tigers will do to produce runs too.

Hinch is the difference-maker.

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