The Tiger Beat: Gritty Tigers head to the Windy City

It’s an All-Chicago week ahead.

It’s Monday, a new week, a new month, and things are looking very good for the Tigers as they took a series win from the Royals. Now they’re headed to visit another AL Central rival with the White Sox and are hoping to continue their winning ways in the Windy City. Chicago will follow them back to Detroit this weekend as well, with the Cubs visiting Comerica Park.

Today in our news bites, we’ll look at what has gotten the Tigers to this incredible season, and what specifically worked well this weekend against the Royals.

There’s also plenty more fun stuff in the general MLB news, so let’s get into it.

Detroit Tigers News:

• Cody Stavenhagen reports for The Athletic on how the Tigers are mixing old-school grit with new-school methods to turn into the powerhouse we’re seeing this season . As always, because The Athletic is a paid site, we’ll use minimal quotes and recommend reading all of Cody’s excellent work, but we couldn’t resist this passage:

The Tigers have baseball’s fifth youngest group of position players; the group buzzes with a relentless energy that has helped them rise from scrappy overachievers to the best team in the American League, with a 37-20 record and a six-game first-place stranglehold entering Friday. But for all this team’s youth, players are more likely to be studying film on an iPad or taping a bat grip than shouting punchlines or profanities across the room. Inside the clubhouse, the JBL Partybox 310 speaker that’s usually hauled out to the bullpen sits silent. Instead, ’90s country plays softly over the room’s speaker system, the relative quiet underscoring a palpable air of seriousness. Perhaps that’s a reflection of the team’s leadership. Maybe it’s a product of big-league pressures.

Or, just maybe, it’s a lesson from last season that has carried over: You don’t get the cathartic celebrations without mastering the daily grind.

• How two small plays led to major moments in the Tigers’ rubber match against the Royals.
• Be honest, no one had this on their bingo cards.

AL Central News:

• The Royals desperately need to call up Jac Caglianone before their season gets away from them.
• A White Sox announcer had quite the response to a bench-clearing moment this weekend .

MLB News:

• Lance McCullers Jr. now has 24-hour security for himself and his family after receiving death threats .
• The Rockies are the fastest team to 50 losses since 1884.
• What the future holds for Clayton Kershaw as he approaches 3000 strikeouts . ($)
• The Top 25 games of the 2000s. ($) (There is only one Tigers game mentioned, and it’s that ALCS game against the Red Sox… brutal)
• The FBI are investigating a multi-million-dollar business owned by MLBPA and NFLPA .
• Elly De La Cruz learned of his sister’s passing on Saturday. He insisted on playing Sunday, and hit an emotional home run in her honor.
• Andrew McCutchen ties Roberto Clemente for a major Pirates milestone.
• How MLB celebrated the 5th annual Lou Gehrig Day.
• Love to see this.

• I don’t think gloves are supposed to do this…