The Detroit Tigers have worked themselves into a position foreign to the franchise for most of the last decade.

The Tigers are in the mix for a playoff spot with eight games remaining — despite Friday's 7-1 loss, they're a game back of the Minnesota Twins for the American League's final wild-card berth. (The Twins, however, have the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Tigers, making it a virtual two-game deficit.)

The Tigers have not made the MLB playoffs since the 2014 season, in what ended up being the last postseason push of that era of the franchise led by Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander. The Tigers, under first-year manager Brad Ausmus, were swept in the best-of-three American League Division Series by the Baltimore Orioles in the final season of a franchise-record streak of four straight postseason trips.

The Tigers are tied with the Los Angeles Angels for the longest active drought in the MLB without a playoff appearance.

The decade since has been a dark period for the Tigers. They finished last in the AL Central in 2015 before making a push in 2016, finishing 2½ games short of a wild-card berth. The next season brought trades of core pieces such as Verlander and J.D. Martinez to begin a rebuild.

The Tigers finished 2017 tied for the fewest wins in MLB (64) and earned the No. 1 pick in the 2018 MLB draft (Casey Mize) before bottoming out at an AL-worst 47 wins in 2019. The organization focused on retooling the farm system under then-general manager Al Avila and started drafting and signing the young crop of players that currently make up the major league roster.

The Tigers started to trend back up in 2021 after hiring manager A.J. Hinch coupled with the promotion of the talented young players, leading to a late-season surge and 77 wins. They took a step back to 66 wins in 2022, before riding another hot stretch in 2023 to 78 wins.

The momentum didn’t carry through the winter as the Tigers expected. After treading water just above .500 in the first month, they struggled through May and June, prompting the team to sell off at the deadline and seemingly set their sights on 2025.

But, the Tigers’ young core and strong pitching staff have put together a run for the ages. Detroit wiped out a 10-game deficit in the race for the final AL wild-card spot, posting the best record in MLB since Aug. 11. The Tigers were tied with the Twins for the final spot before Friday's loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

The Tigers have three series left and have to finish one game ahead of the Twins to return to a setting the franchise hasn’t experienced in a decade.

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press covering the city's professional teams, the state's two flagship universities and more. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: When was last time Detroit Tigers made MLB playoffs?