DETROIT -- Now the Tigers know how it feels to go through a season as the team everyone else targets. They also appreciate what it's like to have to get through a season with injuries and simply try to stay alive for a late-season run.

The first part, they handled better than most expected. The latter was eventually too much for them to overcome.

After a storybook 2006 season that saw the Tigers rise out of 12 straight losing seasons and all the way to the playoffs, Detroit didn't quite fall back to earth in the follow-up year. But the struggles the club encountered reinforced the notion of how difficult it is in today's game for a team to repeat, even simply to get back to the World Series.

The Tigers are still seen as a team with a relatively young core and a chance to contend for several years, and they made a race out of the American League Central all the way into September. But as many players came to realize, contending doesn't always mean winning every year.

"Obviously, we're disappointed," manager Jim Leyland said, "and [Detroit fans] are disappointed. Certainly they've had their share of lessons around here, and I have, too. But I think it also tells you how hard it is and how much you should enjoy it when you do. We certainly did that last year. We enjoyed it with our fans. It's special to win. It's not very easy.

"This is a tough business. It's awful tough to win at the Major League level over the course of 162 games. You've got to have a lot of things go right for you, and they all did last year. We didn't have as many things go right for us this year, but we still had a lot of things go right."

In some ways, they even defied the expectations. Justin Verlander pitched through the notion of a sophomore slump and ended up topping last year's win total, armed with late-season strength he didn't have when he was a rookie last year. Magglio Ordonez became Detroit's first batting champion since Norm Cash in 1961 while putting up the highest RBI total by a Tiger since Rocky Colavito that same season. Curtis Granderson went from leading the American League in strikeouts to leading the AL in extra-base hits in the kind of all-around offensive season not seen statistically since Willie Mays 50 years ago.

Individually, there's a good argument the Tigers were better this year than last, certainly from an offensive standpoint. As a team, however, they never enjoyed the dominant run that propelled them a year ago. One big reason for that is their team wasn't at full strength until it was too late to make something out of it.

The injuries started with emergency surgery on Kenny Rogers near the end of Spring Training, and continued with on-field ailments for Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney, Nate Robertson, Jeremy Bonderman, Andrew Miller, Gary Sheffield and Marcus Thames.

Leyland wouldn't allow his players to use it as an excuse, repeatedly pointing out that every team has to battle through injuries. Yet for a team that, again, had so much go right from a health standpoint in last season's run to the World Series, it was a challenge.

"The key to a winning team is to keep everybody healthy," said shortstop Carlos Guillen, who battled through the occasional soreness in his knees to put up his second consecutive full season. "Unfortunately, we've had a lot of guys this year on the disabled list -- Sheffield, Bonderman, Kenny, Zumaya, Rodney. All those guys, they're key players on this team. And you see we were almost right there."

Sheffield's summer-long shoulder problems eventually put a crimp into the Tigers' offensive machine. It's not that the Tigers didn't have the hitters around him to endure such a loss. It's that Sheffield has enough of an impact on the rest of the lineup that his absence turned a patient lineup into a group that struggled to put together consistently good at-bats.

TIGERS SECOND-HALF TOP PERFORMANCES

7/14, SEA 6, DET 4 -- Inge's gutsy grab Brandon Inge dives into the stands to pull in a foul popup. Highlights: 400K

8/14, DET 6, CLE 2 -- Granderson lays out Curtis Granderson’s diving catch saves the game, a 6-2 win over the Indians. Highlights: 400K

8/18, NYY 5, DET 2 -- Maybin's rocket shot Rookie Cameron Maybin connected off Roger Clemens for his first career home run. Highlights: 400K

8/24, DET 9, NYY 6 -- Guillen ends long night Carlos Guillen's three-run walk-off blast came at 3:30 a.m., on a night hampered by a four-hour rain delay. Highlights: 400K

9/9, SEA 14, DET 7 -- Granderson joins history books Curtis Granderson becomes the third player in MLB history to record 20 homers, 20 triples, 20 doubles and 20 steals in a season. Highlights: 400K

On the whole, the Tigers put up more extra-base hits than any team in franchise history, and they far outdistanced their run total from 2006. They were shut out just three times all season, compared with eight times a year earlier. They even did a little better in one-run games than they did a year ago. In the key stretch from July 20 to Aug. 23, when they didn't win a series, they scored three runs or fewer in 16 of their 23 losses. Given that they were trying to get by without Rogers for much of that stretch, and without Miller for another, it was a bigger factor than it otherwise would've been with a full pitching staff.

The Tigers finally had all their key contributors from 2006 on the active roster in early September, needing a late run to get back into the playoff picture. Their relative health lasted for just a few days before Bonderman's elbow problems forced him onto the shelf.

The bright side of the problems was that the Tigers learned about some of the young talent in the system -- some of which was already well-known, others who were previously overlooked. Top prospect Miller had his moments early in the summer when it looked like he could fit in a big league rotation, but his late-summer struggles eventually knocked him out of the rotation. On the other hand, Jair Jurrjens was a callup out of necessity in August and found himself in the rotation full-time by year's end. Both could be important parts of the rotation at some point next season, though probably not when the season begins, as could spot starter Yorman Bazardo.

Cameron Maybin earned his Major League debut well ahead of schedule in August, and while the risky move backfired, the Tigers learned about the finishing touches he needs before he's ready to stick. On the flip side, veteran Minor Leaguer Ramon Santiago earned himself consideration for part-time shortstop duty with his solid defense down the stretch, allowing Guillen to split time at first base.

Those are the keys off which the Tigers can build. It's part of the reason the Tigers will go into the offseason looking to tweak rather than retool, and a big reason why a disappointing season for a team targeted for the World Series was still a very good season for a franchise that hadn't put together back-to-back 90-win seasons since 1983-84.

"I'm very proud to be part of the organization," Leyland said, "and I'm glad to be a small part of the turnaround. But we're not passing out bouquets. We're working to keep it going and tell our fans how much we appreciate it. We're not sitting around slapping ourselves on the back.

"Now the idea is to maintain it, year after year after year after year, to be playing for something, to be an organization that you can honestly say you can go into Spring Training and have a chance. That's what you want. We're going to keep moving forward. We're not going to look back. We're looking toward the future."