sentences:  The major doubt many fans and pundits had was whether the Tigers could compete against other top-tier American League teams.Early in the season, the team lost series to the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, and lost five of six games to the reigning World Series champion (and AL Central rival) Chicago White Sox.However, on July 20, at a game which featured a particularly stirring rendition of the national anthem by local opera singer Eugene Zweig, and a standing-room-only crowd that included actor Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard, the Tigers beat White Sox pitching ace José Contreras to take the series two games to one from the White Sox, the team's first series victory against an upper-echelon AL team in 2006.