DETROIT — For weeks leading up to the trade deadline, some thought that the Tigers were in a race against time. They would either play an otherworldly brand of baseball and avoid a fire sale, or they would be so far out of contention they would have to dismantle their team and try again next season.Such a binary view always neglected the gray spaces a 162-game season provides — because here the Tigers are now.They traded their two-time Cy Young Award winner and another respected starter. The sun came up the next day. After beating the Guardians 6-4 on Tuesday, the Tigers have won five of seven since the trade deadline. They are 37-22 since June 1. The Tigers ended play Tuesday one game out of the third American League wild-card spot and only 2 1/2 behind the White Sox in the wide-open AL Central.With a host of veterans still here and a new injection of young blood pushing them further, the Tigers are the hottest team this side of the Boston Red Sox. Their playoff odds were only at 36 percent Tuesday night, but as manager A.J. Hinch has said often over an exhausting past three years, the schedule rolls on. Perhaps this is just the beginning of what has already been a dramatic season.“No matter how many times I say it, I don’t know if people really thought it, that the season is not over,” Hinch said. “We have a lot of talent. We’re going to continue to play forward and see where it takes us.”The Tigers don’t have Tarik Skubal. They do have an offense that is clicking on all cylinders, scoring more runs than anyone in the AL since June 1. They now have a dynamic rookie in Max Clark and other newcomers, such as Eduardo Valencia, changing the complexion of the lineup and the bench. They have a fresh young ace in Troy Melton and more firepower in the surgically repaired right arm of Jackson Jobe. The bullpen is still a point of concern — see the white-knuckle eighth and ninth innings of Tuesday’s game for proof — but the team has managed to score enough runs to ease the burden. Even left-handed reliever Tyler Holton has rediscovered his form, and right-hander Jacob Waguespack has a 1.52 ERA since the Tigers brought him aboard in June.It is strange to heap so much praise on a team that still has a losing record — the Tigers are 59-60 — but such is the state of the American League in 2026. No one is playing like a clear favorite, and so many teams remain in the mix. Why not the Tigers?