Not a powerhouse
On team issues, and why the Tigers came up short, Dombrowski said, "It wasn't any one　 player or attitude. I said all along that I never felt we had a powerhouse club. We had a good club.
"To me our biggest shortcoming was the offensive part of the club. You could almost write the same story about every game we lost. Normally we pitched well. Normally we played good defense. We didn't score enough runs.
"I thought we would have a better offense. It was a club that befuddled me. Every day was a struggle, even when we were in first place.
"Was there any player that had a career year offensively? I don't think so. We hung in there, but you never felt 100 percent comfortable."
Instead of saying the Tigers choked or collapsed, Dombrowski labeled it "heartbreaking" what happened to them at the end: "You're in first place since May 10 and lose the last day of the season, it's heartbreaking."