Miss North Carolina Loses Her Crown – August 9, 2026

**BranDon** (0:00)
You're listening to The Drew Lane Show.

**Jim Bentley** (0:02)
I'm so tired of this.

**Drew Lane** (0:03)
It's the same people.

**BranDon** (0:04)
It's literally the same people.

**Jim Bentley** (0:08)
You just replaced a few people.

**Marc Fellhauer** (0:13)
My man, Brogan. All right, hey, it's The Drew Lane Show. It's the Sunday version. We got a big pile of sports from Eli. Marc and BranDon, Trudi will be along soon as Eli's getting her seat warm.
Sorry.

**BranDon** (0:27)
That one's gross.

**Marc Fellhauer** (0:28)
It's just a fact. That seat will be warm.
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And where are we starting today, Eli? We're still starting with the Tigers?

**Trudi Daniels** (1:20)
We're still at number one?

**Eli Zaret** (1:21)
You know, at the end of May, I said, they're dead. You guys said, well, you know, I said, well, I hope they're not dead, but they certainly look dead. I hope they prove me wrong.

**Marc Fellhauer** (1:31)
16 under is a long climb.

**Eli Zaret** (1:33)
22 and 38, it's got, and they're still under 500, but it's gotten very, very interesting. They've won seven out of 10 In fact, since then, they have gone, they're playing at a 61% pace.
They are 35 and 22 since that miserable May. With seven under the last 10, there's six and two in this road trip they play again today in San Francisco and then come home. And so you look at the standings, there's six teams vying for the final playoff spot because the Yanks and the Red Sox have already got the top two spoken for. There are just two games behind the Rangers who are 59 and 58, have won four in a row. The Tigers just two back of them. Between them is Tex, is the Twins and Guardians. So there's six teams vying for the one, but baseball reference does their playoff odds. They like the Tigers chances. They got like a 42% chance they're given to make the playoffs.

**BranDon** (2:29)
Why is it because they play the Central so much?

**Eli Zaret** (2:31)
Well, they do. They got six games coming up this week with Cleveland and Chicago.

**Marc Fellhauer** (2:36)
They got, their offense has been playing very well. They've got an all-star catcher, an all-star shortstop. They didn't have last year, added to all the things they already had, which was not that much, but I mean, their offense is much improved.

**Eli Zaret** (2:46)
Over the last 57 games since the end of May, they're playing at a 99-win pace. If they keep that up, and to think they lost Skubal and Mize, which is looking like a really smart move now, because Scott Harris is getting a lot of credit for what they brought in. Look at their rotation.
Troy Melton has the best ERA in baseball. He has been amazing. He's got a 7-1 with a 1.58 ERA. He doesn't have enough innings to qualify, but the top ERAs are well above that, like in the 2.3 and stuff like that. It's amazing. Then, yesterday, Jackson Job comes back on Saturday, after being away since last May with the Tommy John surgery. He throws five shutout innings of one-hit ball, striking out the first guy with a 100-mile-an-hour fastball.
And, you know, it's very, very interesting.

**Trudi Daniels** (3:39)
I'd still rather have Skubal in the rotation for this run.

**Marc Fellhauer** (3:42)
I would too, because I think this is a team that could go all in. I don't know why they'd be so much better next year or the next year after that, because they're going to have to sign other people. There could be other people coming up.

**Eli Zaret** (3:52)
Skubal, okay, with all...

**Marc Fellhauer** (3:54)
It's always the tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.