DETROIT -- They sank like a stone, dimming the luster of brand-new Comerica Park within weeks of its opening and leaving Detroit fans disappointed if not disgusted.

Then the Tigers started playing the way manager Phil Garner said he was sure they could. After a 9-23 start, the Tigers were playing .500 ball this late in the season for the first time since 1997.

They took a 63-63 record into Friday night's game at Minnesota before losing 8-3.

Even so, the Tigers found themselves just five games behind Boston and Cleveland in the AL wild-card race, creating murmurs of a playoff appearance for the first time since 1987.

	“	We had a bad start; it's no secret. That's why .500 was such a hurdle. We can be relieved. It's like we're starting over now. We have to keep playing ball the way we've been playing. ”
		— Tigers' Damion Easley

"It's been a major objective," Garner said after Detroit hit the break-even mark with Wednesday's 10-3 victory over Oakland. "We had to get here before we go anywhere else. Now the fun starts."

Had the season begun on May 11, Detroit would have the second-best record in the American League.

But it didn't.

Picked by many pundits to be Cleveland's strongest challenger in the AL Central, the Tigers won their season opener at Oakland. Then they lost five straight and their bats went cold as April wore on.

A pitching staff cobbled together with journeymen such as Hideo Nomo and Dave Mlicki, and youngsters Jeff Weaver and Brian Moehler, couldn't keep games from getting away.

Detroit hit bottom on May 10 with a 6-0 loss to Kansas City. It was already the Tigers' sixth shutout loss, and matched the franchise record for the worst 32-game start.

"We had a bad start; it's no secret," second baseman Damion Easley said. "That's why .500 was such a hurdle. We can be relieved. It's like we're starting over now. We have to keep playing ball the way we've been playing."

Over the last 3½ months, the Tigers have overcome injuries to slugging first baseman Tony Clark, Easley, Mlicki and role players Greg Jefferies and Robert Fick. The starting pitching has been shored up by a good bullpen, featuring AL saves leader Todd Jones and veterans Doug Brocail and C.J. Nitkowski.

Third baseman Dean Palmer has been consistent, outfielder Bobby Higginson has bounced back from a terrible 1999 season and shortstop Deivi Cruz hits harder and better than ever. Reserves such as Rich Becker, Wendell Magee and Shane Halter have made unexpected contributions.

Then there's Juan Gonzalez, the two-time AL MVP and star of a season-long subplot.

	Detroit's Juan Gonzalez is hitting well over .300 since the All-Star break.

The off-season trade that brought Gonzalez from Texas was a bold move meant to jump-start both the team's offense and marketing efforts. But he hit poorly when a string of nagging injuries allowed him to play at all. By late June, Detroit was shopping Gonzalez.

A tentative trade with New York collapsed when Gonzalez, who can become a free agent after this season, rejected a $12.5 million, one-year contract extension.

Gonzalez earned a reprieve from weeks of home-crowd booing on July 18, but only by going on the 15-day disabled list with a sore left ankle. By then, injuries already had kept him out of 24 of the team's 90 games.

Healthy since then, Gonzalez is playing up to expectations. He also continues creating controversy, suggesting Comerica Park's fences be moved in and refusing to commit to the Tigers after this season.

But for the most part, the subplot has shifted to the possibility of a postseason berth that seemed ridiculous in mid-May, when the Tigers were deep in the division cellar.

"Playing .500 is being mediocre, and I don't want to play for a .500 team. I want to play for a winning team," catcher Brad Ausmus said. "When you start the way we started, you have to chip away."

Higginson agreed.

"We've been playing some pretty good baseball against some pretty good teams, and I don't see us stepping backwards," he said. "We dug ourselves a hole and got out of it. We've got a month left to see if we can keep playing well, and then see where we're at."