Don't count out the Tigers; they will contend to end

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Go ahead and admit it: You think the Tigers, fresh off back-to-back shutout losses, are on their way to becoming this year's version of last year's Orioles, a team that was in first place with a three-game lead on June 19, only to finish 21 games out of first place.

It's easy to scoff at the Tigers, especially if you think the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Blue Jays will school them over the next two weeks. Detroit's pitchers don't strike out many batters (they have the sixth-worst strikeout rate in baseball). The Tigers beat up on a relatively weak schedule for the first 50 games of the season, they won nine out of 13 one-run games (a stat that won't hold pace) and, well, it's Detroit, a franchise that hasn't fielded a winning team in the wild-card era, that built a ballpark that put fans farther away from the action than the old one and that employs a mutant, shrunken-head tiger mascot that might be the lamest mascot in baseball since that crab thing in San Francisco.

Just forget all that. The Tigers are for real. Maybe not playoff kind of real, though it would be great if somebody forced the Yankees and Red Sox to sweat a little at the end of September instead of letting them treat the wild card as their annual get-out-of-jail-free card. The White Sox, after all, are the defending world champions who added a $10 million pitcher as their fifth starter and an MVP, 60-homer candidate as their DH.

But the Tigers can hang in there to win in the neighborhood of 90 games. Here are five reasons Detroit is for real:

1. Pitching. Detroit allowed zero or one run in half of its first 30 wins. Its ERA is more than half a run better than every other team in the league. Its bullpen is spectacular, fashioning the lowest ERA (3.08) and lowest opponent's average (.214) in baseball while losing only two games all year. Two. The Tigers are 26-1 when they lead after the sixth inning. They win games they have in hand.

2. Jim Leyland. He doesn't miss a thing. Last Friday, Leyland yelled to Magglio Ordoñez at second base as Cleveland center fielder Grady Sizemore chased a fly ball to the warning track. "Run hard! Run hard!'' Leyland said in an obvious tag situation. "They might drop it!" The Indians botched the relay and Ordoñez scored from second base.

This team does not have a dominant player or personality, so Leyland is a perfect fit. How many other managers run the clubhouse? He always has been one of the best managers around at putting his players in the best position for them to succeed, and that includes his roles for relief pitchers and the right spots to use his bench players.

Here's my sub-list of additions who have done the most to change the personality of their team this year:
1. Leyland, Tigers
2. Aaron Rowand, Phillies
3. Carlos Delgado, Mets
4. Rafael Furcal, Dodgers
5. Troy Glaus, Blue Jays