AL Central foes will continue a four-game series on Saturday evening when the Detroit Tigers visit the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. The Guardians have won the first two games of the set, inculdung a 6-5 triumph on Friday night as a -170 favorite. Detroit is having a tough year at 37-54, while Cleveland is in second place at 45-44.
Despite the mismatch in overall records, Detroit still leads the season series 7-4.
The Tigers have been unable to take the expected step forward in their rebuilding effort, and things have only gotten worse lately with the losses piling up including a 6-5 defeat om Friday. Rookie Riley Greene got Detroit on the board with a solo homer in the third before hitting a go-ahead two-run double the next inning, but it still wasn't enough as Cleveland eventually took the lead in the seventh.
Drew Hutchinson went five innings, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks while striking out three. Michael Fulmer was charged with a blown save and a loss, allowing two runs on two hits. Harold Castro had a three-hit game including a pair of doubles.
“As a pitcher, you want to tell yourself you can live with the doubles that bounce right in front of home plate and the soft singles. That's just part of it,” Fulmer said to MLB.com. “But what you can't live with is leadoff walks. They always come back to find a way to bite you in the butt.”
The Tigers remain down a significant amount on the money line while going 42-48 on the run line. Overs are a meager 32-54-4 after the first two games of this series went under the betting total.
This is the lowest-scoring offense in baseball at 3.16 runs per game on just a .622 team OPS. Detroit pitching is also in the bottom 10 with a 4.08 collective ERA even with a strong bullpen posting a mark of 3.09.
Greene is looking very promising as a rookie, posting a .716 OPS with two homers and 11 RBI through his first 21 games. Harold Castro has also been solid, batting .280/.309/.415 with 19 RBI and 20 runs scored across 59 games.
Veteran Michael Pineda will make his ninth start of the year, having gone 2-4 with a 3.58 ERA over 37.2 innings while also spending significant time on the IL. The 33-ye ar-old went 5.1 innings against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out two.
Catcher Jake Rogers is recovering from Tommy John surgery while outfielder Austin Meadows has a strained Achillies. The rotation has been beat up, with Rony Garcia (shoulder soreness), Matt Manning (shoulder inflammation), Casey Mize (Tommy John surgery) and Spencer Turnbull (Tommy John surgery) out. Relievers Wily Peralta (strained hamstring) and Kyle Funkhouser (strained shoulder) are sidelined.