CLEVELAND -- Never mind that the Tigers have been 6-0 three other times in franchise history. . .
I'm telling you that this is their best six-game start ever.
Because it is.
Better even than in 1984 when they didn't lose until their 10th game.
What I won't tell you, and can't tell you, is that a six-game start is hugely important. It can be. Or it can't be.
For the Tigers, it's been both.
"I'll put it in perspective," manager Brad Ausmus said after Sunday's 8-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians. "It's the first week of the season and I'm not ready to throw any parties."
The other years in which the Tigers went 6-0 were 1985, 1984 and 1911. They won it all in 1984, of course, after going 35-5 in their first 40 games.
Winning their first six, en route to their first nine, was the launch button.
"I was on that team at that time," said Tigers' broadcaster Rod Allen, "and I can tell you that these guys have the same confidence."
In 1985, the Tigers lost their seventh game and fell out first place for good before the end of April -- en route to finishing with an 84-77 record, 15 games out of first place.
For the first six games, though, it looked as if they would repeat the magic of 1984.
But they didn't.
With a run differential of only 16 compared to this year's 31 through six games, their start in 1985 didn't turn out to mean much.
In 1911, the Tigers lost their seventh game, but recovered to win their next five. But the point is that they didn't get beyond 6-0.
And the run differential of their six-game start was only 20.
So the only time the Tigers have ever been 7-0, with a chance to get there again on Monday in Pittsburgh, was in 1984.
But the start within that start was nothing like this, folks. Not even close.
This one, meaning the sheer dominance of it out of the gate, is something the Tigers have never done before, never seen before, and, who knows, might never even have known was possible.
With 47 runs and 78 hits, that's how hot they are -- and that's how especially hot their hitters are.
Make no mistake, the Tigers' pitching has been very good, too. They went into Sunday's game with a 1.40 ERA which was tied with Atlanta's as the best in the majors.
By allowing five runs against the Indians, the Tigers' ERA rose to 2.00.
Their defense has been sterling as well. Through six games, they'd not made an infield error until the ninth inning on Sunday. Of their two other mistakes, one was a David Price throwing error to second base, the other was made by Yoenis Cespedes in left.
But their hitting has been relentless -- and it wasn't that way in 1984.
In fact, when the Tigers beat the Texas Rangers 5-1 for their sixth straight victory that year, their starting lineup wasn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball.
The Tigers hit only .234 in their first six games of 1984, ranging from hot to cold. In three of the games, they had a total of 30 hits. In the other three, they had only 15.
Alan Trammell was off to a .391 start, and Chet Lemon checked in at .333, but they were the only regulars over .300.
The others were Darrell Evans at .278, Kirk Gibson at .263, Lou Whitaker at .208, Dave Bergman at .200, Larry Herndon at .118 and Lance Parrish at .095.
Third base was split between Tom Brookens and Howard Johnson through six games -- with Brookens off to a 0-for-10 start and Johnson 4-for-9.
Combined, though, the two third basemen were hitting .211.
This year, though, the Tigers haven't yet cooled off. Indeed, they've shown no sign of it.
"Not only do they have a good lineup, it's a hot lineup," Indians' manager Terry Francona said.
The Tigers went into Sunday's game hitting .364 as a team. That was 40 points above Kansas City, whose .324 was second best in the majors.
The Tigers also led the majors in runs without Miguel Cabrera having hit a home run yet.
Cabrera filled in that blank on Sunday by hitting two home runs off the Indians. He also singled, doubled and knocked in four runs while upping his batting average to .520.
So respectful of Cabrera were the Indians in his final, they walked him intentionally with first base occupied and two outs in the eighth.
The move paid off with Victor Martinez's inning-ending grounder to second.
The Tigers' surge doesn't represent an overall spike in offense among major-league teams, however. Going into Sunday's games, nine of them of them were hitting .200 or less.
As mighty as they're supposed to be, the Washington Nationals had scored only nine runs.
Ausmus, of course, knows that comparisons to the past and to other teams mean nothing as far as the Tigers' tomorrows are concerned.
What's important is how Alex Avila summed it up: "Six games, six wins."
But you as an observer can take the time to be impressed -- and so can I.
By the Tigers' best six-game start ever.
