At certain, fleeting points this season, the Tigers and Dodgers have ruled the AL and NL with league-best records. For a time, they seemed like the two likeliest World Series opponents in what could’ve been a David vs. Goliath matchup for the ages.

It could still happen, but both teams have seen their once seemingly insurmountable division leads shrink down with about a quarter of the season still left to play — in the Dodgers’ case, they saw it disappear entirely on Tuesday. The Tigers are still managing to hold the Guardians at arm’s length.

On Tuesday, the Dodgers lost to the Angels by just a run in a game that included a Dodgers’ bullpen breakdown; a spoiled tie-game, bases-loaded situation; and the Angels’ eighth triple play in franchise history thanks to a liner from none other than Shohei Ohtani. That loss officially eliminated the Dodgers’ already tenuous lead over the Padres, and they’re now tied with six games left to play against each other.

On July 3, LA had a nine-game lead over San Diego. Just a little over a month later, it’s gone.

The Tigers still have one of the bigger division leads in baseball, but they’ve seen their lead — at one point 15.5 games over the Guardians — whittled down in short order too (6.5 now).

Dodgers losing their grip on a nine-game lead over the Padres should have Tigers fans worried about the Guardians

The Dodgers and Tigers both had incredibly worrisome Julys. The Dodgers went 10-14 and the Tigers went 11-14; they carry almost identical 5-6 (Dodgers) 6-6 (Tigers) records through Detroit’s afternoon game against the White Sox on Wednesday.

The Padres had a lot less ground to make up to catch the Dodgers than the Guardians do to catch the Tigers, but Detroit is losing at almost the exact same pace as LA. On the other side of the coin, the Padres and Guardians have been winning at an almost identical pace. It only took San Diego 16 games to make up a six-game deficit.

The Tigers’ two series against the Guardians in September might prove to be pivotal if the two teams keep going in opposite directions. Detroit has managed to win their last two series, but there are still holes in the roster that the trade deadline didn’t patch up. It’s looking like it’ll be a race to the finish for the Dodgers and Padres. On the other hand, the Tigers still have the luxury of holding a significant gap over the Guardians, and hopefully they won’t end up the same way as LA.