Detroit Facing a Meltdown Unlike Any Other Today

FoxSports.com has six storylines for today’s one-game playoff, but the Tigers vs. History is clearly the most intriguing (aside from the most obvious of storylines: who will be in the playoffs vs. who will go home):

If the Tigers lose, manager Jim Leyland and his team will go straight to the Hall of Infamy. According to Dave W. Smith of Retrosheet.org, they could become the first team in major league history to have a three-game lead with four to play and fail to win the division. The Baseball Prospectus playoff odds calculator had the Tigers’ chances of winning the Central at just over 96 percent after they beat the Twins last Wednesday. “I don’t want to say they’ve choked, but, yeah, they have choked,” Twins outfielder Denard Span told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “They’ve choked a little bit, but they have the opportunity to not choke, I guess.”