Jim Costa

The Detroit Tigers, tied for the worst record in the American League, are feuding with a local sports radio host.

Well, at least they are on social media.

Jim Costa of WXYT-FM's Costa and Jansen with Heather show (97.1 The Ticket) has been flaming the Tigers over the past few days as Detroit has slipped to the bottom of the AL standings. That's not particularly unexpected for a local sports talk radio personality, especially with the Tigers being the only Detroit professional sports team currently playing games.

What was odd is how the Tigers clapped back.

But before we get there, let's start at the beginning.

What kicked off the beef

During the Tigers' 10-6 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday, May 26, right fielder Wenceel Pérez hit a solo home run that snapped a nearly monthlong streak without a round-tripper for the struggling outfielder. Pérez later shared a replay of his home run five times on his Instagram story, something Costa called out both on social media and on his radio show the next day.

"What point are you trying to prove here? That you're good? You're not," Costa said on the show. "You're a negative-one WAR player, there's nobody worse in Major League Baseball. Your ass shouldn't even be on the roster."

Pérez went on to have his best series at the plate, going 3-for-9 with two home runs, a double and three walks as he raised his OPS by 88 points over the span of three days (and is now merely the ninth-least-valuable position player in baseball per FanGraphs WAR). His two homers against the Angels doubled his season total.

But it was that second homer that got the Tigers involved in the beef.

Tigers call out Jim Costa

In the second inning of the Tigers' 7-1 loss to the Angels on Thursday, the Tigers' official X account shared a replay of Pérez's solo home run, which at the time gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Though the Tigers didn't call out Costa directly, the caption on the post ("so good we might share it 5 [FIVE!?!] different times") was clearly a reference to Costa's rant about Pérez.

The Tigers' post got a ton of engagement, some from fans appreciating the clapback but many more calling the caption out of touch.

The blowback got worse as the game progressed, and the Tigers offense failed to record a hit for five consecutive innings following the home run (Pérez broke the streak with a leadoff double in the eighth inning) and ended up losing the game, 5-1, and the series to the fellow league-worst Angels.

Costa then responded with a callback, once again asking the Tigers to "read the room."

Neither side seemed to get total support in this beef, as a few people called out Costa's most recent post as an unnecessary pile-on.

But there is one unifying factor here that basically everyone seems to agree on: The Tigers are playing bad baseball right now, and no one is to be happy about it.

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You can reach Christian at [email protected].