Orioles vs. Tigers: Who's got a better shot at October?

The Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers are neck and neck in the American League playoff chase. With the teams facing off this weekend, beat writers Eddie Matz (O's) and Katie Strang (Tigers) debate which one has the edge.

Read their conversation -- then vote below.

Matz: The Orioles are like the evil villain in a B horror movie. Just when you think they're toast, they rise from the ashes to wreak havoc on a group of unsuspecting teenagers with a habit of hanging out in abnormally dark places where cellphone range is oddly limited.

Substitute the Tigers for the stupid teens, and voila -- you've got your 2016 O's. They limped out of August having lost 10 of 16, not to mention their grip on the second AL wild-card spot. But since the calendar flipped to September, they've won four of six and suddenly have the look of a dangerous squad. Heck, the way their rotation is rounding into form (better late than never!), a division title isn't out of the question.

That's more than Los Tigres can say.

Strang: Funny you should employ such imagery, Eddie. Normally, I think any team would be quick to take offense to any surly teen comparisons, but the Tigers' influx of youth has actually been a big reason Detroit remains in the thick of the playoff race.

Michael Fulmer has been a revelation for the Tigers -- at this point, the 23-year-old righty is the front-runner for the AL Rookie of the Year award -- but young lefties such as Matt Boyd and Daniel Norris have also stepped up to stabilize what has at times been an erratic and injury-ravaged rotation. Combine that youthful exuberance with the steady presence of resident ace Justin Verlander -- who could pitch himself into the AL Cy Young conversation with a strong September -- and the heavy lumber of proven veterans such as Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and a suddenly resurgent Justin Upton, and you have a well-rounded, experienced team in Detroit still smarting from the sting of missing out on last season's playoffs.

This is a club playing with confidence and swagger, and it is not even close to full strength. Once they get third baseman Nick Castellanos, who was hitting .286 with 18 homers when he went down with a hand injury last month, and No. 2 starter Jordan Zimmermann, who had a phenomenal first half of the season, back, we might see a Tigers team reminiscent of the ones that dominated the AL Central from 2011 to '14.

Matz: No matter how filthy Verlander is in September, there's no way he wins the Cy Young because (exaggeration alert) Ubaldo Jimenez already has it locked up.

After being baseball's worst starter in the first half, he was banished to the bullpen. But when ace Chris Tillman hit the shelf with a bum shoulder, skipper Buck Showalter broke the in-case-of-emergency glass and summoned Jimenez to take Tillman's spot. Since then, the 32-year-old righty is partying like it's 2010: He has a 2.91 ERA in three starts and, in his last outing, tossed the O's first complete game in two years. Combine that with Dylan Bundy's arrival, Kevin Gausman's maturity, and Tillman's return this Sunday (versus Verlander in a huge game that's not the ESPN Sunday Nighter because ... why exactly?), and suddenly the Birds' biggest weakness is -- dare I say it -- a strength (-ish).

Strang: OK, we're going to have to table the whole Ubaldo Jimenez debate for another day, since that is a weird and unpredictable saga that deserves discussion in its own right -- consider me skeptical he can sustain his recent success -- but I feel I should at least point this out about youngster Dylan Bundy. Like Tigers rookie (and fellow Oklahoma native) Michael Fulmer, it has been great for the Orioles to get such contributions from the former fourth overall draft pick.

However, workload has to be an area of concern for the organization; the 23-year-old is already at 94.1 innings -- more than any of his previous three seasons combined. For a promising young arm just three years removed from Tommy John surgery, Bundy's long-term health would trump the team's short-term needs, one would think. It will be interesting to see how the Orioles manage his innings while trying to make a playoff push, but I digress ...

Let's get down to brass tacks here and state an obvious advantage for the Tigers: strength of schedule (or lack thereof). The Tigers, with 23 games remaining in the season, have the easiest path of any of the top five teams in the American League wild-card race, with an average opponents' winning percentage of .479. The toughest test will be the final two series of the season against the division-leading Cleveland Indians, against whom they are a putrid 1-11 in 2016. But you have to figure that, eventually, the law of averages might win out and the Tigers could make up some critical ground against the Tribe.

Beyond that, Detroit has a few cupcakes on the remaining schedule, including a pair of sets against the Minnesota Twins and a season-ending three-game series against the bottom-dwelling Braves.

How's that for a favorable few weeks?

Matz: I see what you did there, Katie. Kicked it off with an astute observation about how Fulmer and Bundy are practically twins, then bookended it with more Twins talk. You can't teach that.

But you can teach hitting. And the way the Birds are starting to swing the bats, it doesn't matter who they play. Well, it kinda does. But the truth is, the speed bumps in Detroit's road to the postseason (seven games versus Cleveland, three versus K.C.) aren't all that different from the bumps in Baltimore's (seven versus Boston, three versus Toronto).

But back to those bats: After a deep midsummer slumber, the O's artillery, led by MVP candidate Manny Machado and a recently resurgent Chris Davis, is heating up at just the right time. Since the beginning of August, the Birds have bashed 65 bombs, which is 10 more than the next closest American League squad. How's that for a favorable few weeks?

Strang: Touché, Eddie, touché. But while the Orioles' bats are admittedly crushing the ball, leading the league with a whopping 219 home runs, I'm more comfortable with Detroit's total offensive production over the course of the entire season.

Entering Friday's game, the Tigers rank third overall in the majors and second in the American League (second only to the high-octane Boston Red Sox) with an impressive .267 batting average. And while their bullpen has regressed from the first half of the season, their rotation is still holding its own and being stingy when it counts. Since Aug. 20, Detroit's starting pitchers have allowed three earned runs or fewer in 16 of 17 games, tops in the American League.

Combine the returns of Castellanos and Zimmermann with the fact that the team's big boppers Cabrera, Upton and J.D. Martinez are swinging their bats well, and I like this team's chances.

Matz: I also like the Tigers' chances ... of watching the postseason from the comfort of their respective homes.