Maybin compares Tigers to python: 'We just keep squeezing'

It was Cameron Maybin's father who first mentioned the likeness between the Detroit Tigers and a python, and the center fielder immediately knew it rang true.

"You can try to get away but we just keep squeezing, keep squeezing and we keep squeezing and eventually until it seems like we kinda devour you," Maybin said of the team's lineup, according to George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press.

"That's kind of the mindset we have, that as long as we continue to put together at-bats and continue to not get down about how many hard outs we've made. I mean, last night before we even got anything going I think there were like seven or eight hard outs. That's like that squeezing feeling I like to equate it to. We just keep battling and keep playing throughout the game, good things happen."

There should be relatively little chatter about the validity of the 59-48 team. Detroit is two games back of the first-place Cleveland Indians in the AL Central and squeezing very tightly, Justin Verlander was the American League pitcher of the month for July, and the newly activated J.D. Martinez homered in his return to the lineup Wednesday to lift the Tigers to their eighth straight win.

Maybin is out of Thursday's lineup. He's day to day with a mildly sprained thumb, according to Jason Beck of MLB.com.