the Tigers have their longest winning streak since 1984.

Detroit scored 2 runs in the bottom of the first.  Delmon Young had an RBI single.  Magglio Ordonez scored on a Victor Martinez double play.

Doug Fister made those runs hold up.  He pitched 7 shutout innings, striking out 5.  Fister is now 5-1 as a Tiger.  He looks like their second best starter as Detroit thinks ahead to the playoffs.

Jose Valverde gave up a run in the 9th but closed out the game to set a new Tiger single season record with 43 saves.

Delmon Young was 2-4.  But like they've done alot recently Detroit spread 9 hits among 8 players.  They didn't have an extra base hit, and they were 1-10 with runners in scoring position, but got just enough offense and great pitching. In the The Can't Stay Hot Forever Department Victor Martinez was 0-4.  He grounded into 3 double plays and lined into a double play in his final at bat. He's the first hitter since Joe Torre in 1975 to hit into 4 double plays in a game.

Detroit's winning streak is now 9 straight.  They've won 11 of 12 and 19 of 23.  Their Magic Number to clinch is now 8.  Cleveland is leading Chicago right now so it could drop to 7.

Detroit's got to do some work on the road now.  They could well clinch the division on the road.  They start a 9 game road trip tomorrow, with the first of 3 games in Chicago.   The White Sox get one final chance to put a tiny dent in Detroit's lead.    They'd need to sweep to have any prayer.  Taking 2 of 3 would only gain them a game.   Detroit can make it all over in the Central except for the champagne (if it isn't already) by winning the series.  Each Tiger win over Chicago will drop their magic number by 2. 

8-8 in the final 16 games wraps it up for sure for Detroit, even if Chicago miraculously went 16-0 to end the season.   Factor in the reality that the White Sox are essentially a .500 team, so they're likely to go 8-8 or 9-7 or so, Detroit in a practical sense only needs to win a couple more games on its end.

Winning is good though.  If they stay ahead of Texas they'd get home field advantage in their first series.  I think if things ended now the Yankees would get the Rangers or Angels out of the AL West.  The Yankees seem to be on track to have the best record in the league.  Since they can't play Boston in the first round, because two teams in the same division can't meet in the first round, that means they'd get the team with the next worst record.  That would be the AL West Champion as it stands right now.  Detroit would get Boston and could start with 2 games in Detroit to build momentum before heading to a hostile stadium of one of the AL Superpowers.