With Kenny Rogers set to take the mound tomorrow against the White Sox, who have just embarrassed Detroit this year, and Gary Sheffield set to return to the lineup on Thursday, do the Tigers have enough time to turn it around? Well, yes.

There has been quite a bit of negativity around Detroit regarding the Tigers lately. With folks either taking a single game as a sign the season is over or even a single pathetic inning or at-bat as some sort of omen. This season is not over folks. Yes, the Division is looking pretty far out of reach at this point but the Wild Card is far from it. Detroit is 3.0 (soon to be 3.5) games out on the Yankees who, while on paper have a reasonably easy schedule left, have found ways to lose to much lesser talented teams.

There is no telling how good Rogers will be upon his return. There is no telling how good Sheffield will be upon his return. These will both be keys to success through this last month of the regular season. Same as the importance of solid returns from both Joel Zumaya and Rodney were early, though they haven’t seemed to jump-start this team. Securing a few good outings by Kenny Rogers and some added offensive production from Gary Sheffield could be enough to carry this team into October.

The remainder of the year is against predominantly sub-.500 teams. Before this evenings game Detroit’s odds of making the playoffs rested at 27.78%, a percentage I’d have loved to see at this time of the year just a few years ago. Baseball is a funny game, slumps can start from a single game and end on a single game.