This afternoon, the 39-49, third place, Detroit Tigers no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0. It’s not going to be enough to vault the Tigers over the Twins and Guardians into first place in the ho-hum AL Central, but it’s a good sign for the franchise.

Due to a succession of lousy seasons, Detroit has had some pretty good draft picks over the past decade, but with little to show because of some pretty ugly injuries to their pitching staff.

Starter Matt Manning is a 25-year-old, 1st round pick of the Tigers (2016) and due to setbacks and injuries has only made 35 career starts. He pitched the first 6.2 innings and was backed up by a pair of 27-year-old righties, Jason Foley and Alex Lange. Foley’s made 103 relief appearances and Lange 143 so we’re not talking grizzled veterans.

I’m happy for Lange who’s proven to be a pretty fair back of the bullpen guy. He was a first round pick of the Cubs back in 2017 out of LSU and was traded to Detroit during the 2019 season. I got to know him a little when I was doing a feature on his former minor league teammate and SEC rival, Keegan Thompson. The two were roommates and he provided some background. More often that not, I can root for a guy after he leaves the teams I root for-unless he comes back to haunt us.