SERIES: at Comerica Park, Monday-Wednesday; all three games start at 1:05 PM Eastern Time, or just after noon here in the Central Time Zone.CURRENT STANDING: The Tigers are 4-3, currently 1st place in the A.L. Central, 1/2 game ahead of the Sox and are undefeated (3-0) at Comerica this season.
MONDAY'S PROBABLES: Gavin Floyd (0-1, 2.57) vs. Zach Miner (1-0, 1.59)
TUESDAY'S PROBABLES: John Danks (0-0, 0.00) vs. Rick Porcello (0-1, 7.20)
WEDNESDAY'S PROBABLES: Jose Contreras (0-1, 7.20) vs. Armando Galarraga (1-0, 1.29)
After an embarrassing opening series in Toronto, the Tigers righted their ship in a big way, sweeping previously unbeaten Texas at home and taking sole possession of 1st place in the Central division along the way; their 4-3 mark is 1 win better than both the Sox and Royals. Of course, any time Gavin is set to pitch against Detroit, we have to point out his impressive career numbers against the Tigers; 9 games, all of them starts, a 4-0 record and a 3.23 ERA with 41 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 53 IP. He's even better at Comerica, where 4 of those starts have taken place and he's 2-0 with a 2.62 ERA. If there's one guy to worry about with Gavin, its Placido Polanco, who has a career .381/.458/.667 line against Gavin in 24 career plate appearances, though he was substantially better against Gavin in 2007 than 2008.
It's also noteworthy that the Sox have dominated the Tigers in Detroit since they moved to Comerica Park in 2000, going 49-32 at Detroit during that span, the most wins the Sox have recorded at any park outside of Chicago since 2000. This past decade, the Tigers have only won the season series against the Sox once (2004, when they won 11 of 19 games).
The Tigers have been getting it done with their offense. They rank near the top of the American League in most major offensive categories; notably Runs Scored (41, 2nd), Team Batting Average (.284, 3rd), and AB per HR (23.2, 4th). Individually, Miguel Cabrera is leading the charge, with a .520 BA after the first week of the season, 2nd in the American League and Brandon Inge already has 4 HR on the year, also good for 2nd in the A.L. To make matters worse, Cabrera has hit the current Sox staff well over his career, especially Jose Contretas, who he is 7-10 against in his career with a ridiculous line of .700/.769/.800, though he has only hit 1 HR in 72 combined plate appearances against the entire pitching staff (that lone HR, if you recall was courtesy of Octavio Dotel last June and was of the walk-off variety).
At any rate, its difficult to peg any team after just one week, but this Tigers team has been particularly vexing. After losing 3 of 4 from Toronto in an ugly series in which they were outscored 24-16, they bounced back at home against the Rangers blowing them out in a three-game sweep by a combined 24-9.
One Final Matchup to Watch: Paul Konerko/Jim Thome vs. Fernando Rodney. Rodney has inherited the Tigers' closing role in the wake of Todd Jones' retirement and Joel Zumaya's continued arm troubles. Rodney has been around for years now, but is still relatively unknown to many Sox hitters; 9 of them have seen him 4 times or less in their careers. Though Rodney has owned A.J. Pierzynski (0-8, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 4 K), he has fared less well against Konerko and Thome, who are a combined 8-19 (.421) against Rodney and Thome is the only active Sox hitter to have taken Rodney yard, a solo home run on September 18, 2006.
4 comments:
why are all these games afternoon games? makes no sense to me.
I'm sure it has something to do with the temperature, the gametime temp was 38 degrees this afternoon, it's still very cold in Detroit at night.
But I agree, this stinks.
that makes some sense, but by that logic, why wasn't friday's game at comiskey played in the afternoon?
i can't wait until they replace the big inflatable toilet here in minneapolis with an outdoor park, they're going to have weather issues every april. the home owner at the new target field next season shouldn't be until may.
I think the home team still has some control over start times (except, when they're overruled for a national telecast), so perhaps the Sox are less afraid of the cold than the Tigers are?
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