LAKELAND, Fla. — Three teams in recent seasons have hoarded most of the World Series championships. The Detroit Tigers helped each of them.

The San Francisco Giants, the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals have combined for eight of the last 11 titles. The Giants and the Cardinals beat the Tigers in the World Series, and the Red Sox did so in a championship series.

Naturally, this has not escaped the attention of Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers’ president and architect. He wishes his team had played better against St. Louis in 2006 and San Francisco in 2012. He still thinks about the high changeup David Ortiz lashed into the Boston bullpen for a grand slam, a crucial blow in the 2013 playoffs.

The Tigers cannot break through. They have won four consecutive American League Central titles, and that 2006 A.L. pennant. But October heartbreak haunts the team and its fans, as Dombrowski learned at a January banquet in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.