Best Tigers season

By Trey Lyle

Our Best Seasons series continues with the Detroit Tigers, a team that has won four World Series championships. 

In two of those seasons, the team won over 100 games; one was in 1968 with 103 wins. The other time was the best season in franchise history. 

The 1984 Detroit Tigers posted the best season the team has ever had. The team went 104-58, which is the best record in franchise history. 

A team that had one of the most impressive starts to a season, the Tigers started the season by winning their first nine games and were 35-5 after forty games. This helped the team to lead the AL East from wire to wire during the season, winning the division by 15 games. 

In the playoffs, the team only lost one game after a sweep of the Royals in the ALCS and defeated the Padres in five games in the World Series. 

The team was led by AL Cy Young Winner and MVP Willie Hernandez, the closer for the team who had 32 saves, a 1.92 ERA and 112 strikeouts. 

As a pitching staff, they were first in ERA with 3.49 and fourth in strikeouts with 914 Ks during the season. 

The team could hit as well, leading the league in home runs with 187, on-base percentage at .342, second in slugging at .342, and fourth in batting average with .271. 

A team that had four players in the top 16 of AL MVP voting and two in the top 7 for the CY Young showed how not only were the 1984 Tigers the franchise's best season, but also one of the most talented teams in the history of baseball.