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After winning the series against the Angels 2-1 the Guardians stay home to host the Detroit Tigers for the first games between these teams this season. Detroit, a young up-and-coming team that finished second in the A.L. Central last year, is off to a good start at 18-16. However, they were just swept in New York by the Yankees, scoring just six runs in the three games.
The Guardians are fortunate not to face the Tigers’ ace, Tarik Skubal, in this series. Skubal is 4-0 with a 1.90 ERA. He pitched Sunday, striking out 12 Yankees in a losing effort.
The Tigers are a good pitch, bad hit team, ranking 19th in runs per game and 22nd to 24th in OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, ISO, K%, XBH%, and wRC+.
Their best every day hitters are Riley Greene (.269/.935), Mark Canha (.254/.827), and Matt Vierling (.287/.771). Greene has 8 homers but only 16 RBI’s, which shows how much trouble they’ve had putting runners on base. Wenceel Perez, a rookie, is hitting .302/.949 in just 53 AB’s.
Pitching is a different story as the Tigers rank 4th in ERA and WHIP, 5th lowest in walk percentage, and 2nd lowest in extra base hit percentage. They are 11th in K/9 and are above average in opponents’ home run percentage. Their bullpen is 6th in ERA. They were swept in New York by scores of 2-1, 5-3, and 5-2, illustrating both their strong pitching and marginal offense.
Triston McKenzie takes on Jack Flaherty, a 28-year-old right-hander, in the opener. Flaherty is an eight-year vet who spent his first six years with the Cardinals. His career mark is 42-35, 3.76 ERA. This year he is 0-4 with a 4.00 ERA in six starts. But in his last start he went 6.2 innings against his old team, shutting them out on two hits. Before that game his ERA was 4.91.
Flaherty has been very good from the windup; not so much from the stretch. With RISP opponents are hitting .360/1.047 and with RISP and two outs it’s .500/1.563. Obviously the key is to get runners in scoring position because he has been awful in those situations.
Triston is 2-2, 4.34 ERA and is also coming off his best start of the season, a seven-inning, two-run outing against the Astros. Current Tigers are 3-for-34 lifetime against him. He has owned these guys.
So the first game could be a low scoring affair and the other two games look the same. Game 2 is Logan Allen, also coming off his best start of the year, against Kenta Maeda, who is 1-1, 5.02 ERA. Game 3 will be Tanner Bibee against 24-year-old right-hander Reese Olson, who has a 2.70 ERA but is 0-4 due to no run support.
The Guardians have been inconsistent scoring runs recently due to in large part to slumps by Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor. But they both homered yesterday so hopefully they will get back to being the highly productive hitters they were in April. They will need to be if Steven Kwan and his .353 batting average are out for a while.
The Guardians have been on a mini-slugging spree. They have scored 11 runs in the last two games, all on home runs. Even Hedgie hit one. And hopefully more slugging is on the way as the Kyle Manzardo era starts tomorrow.
The Guardians are 4.0 games ahead of the 4th place Tigers.
The Guardians are fortunate not to face the Tigers’ ace, Tarik Skubal, in this series. Skubal is 4-0 with a 1.90 ERA. He pitched Sunday, striking out 12 Yankees in a losing effort.
The Tigers are a good pitch, bad hit team, ranking 19th in runs per game and 22nd to 24th in OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, ISO, K%, XBH%, and wRC+.
Their best every day hitters are Riley Greene (.269/.935), Mark Canha (.254/.827), and Matt Vierling (.287/.771). Greene has 8 homers but only 16 RBI’s, which shows how much trouble they’ve had putting runners on base. Wenceel Perez, a rookie, is hitting .302/.949 in just 53 AB’s.
Pitching is a different story as the Tigers rank 4th in ERA and WHIP, 5th lowest in walk percentage, and 2nd lowest in extra base hit percentage. They are 11th in K/9 and are above average in opponents’ home run percentage. Their bullpen is 6th in ERA. They were swept in New York by scores of 2-1, 5-3, and 5-2, illustrating both their strong pitching and marginal offense.
Triston McKenzie takes on Jack Flaherty, a 28-year-old right-hander, in the opener. Flaherty is an eight-year vet who spent his first six years with the Cardinals. His career mark is 42-35, 3.76 ERA. This year he is 0-4 with a 4.00 ERA in six starts. But in his last start he went 6.2 innings against his old team, shutting them out on two hits. Before that game his ERA was 4.91.
Flaherty has been very good from the windup; not so much from the stretch. With RISP opponents are hitting .360/1.047 and with RISP and two outs it’s .500/1.563. Obviously the key is to get runners in scoring position because he has been awful in those situations.
Triston is 2-2, 4.34 ERA and is also coming off his best start of the season, a seven-inning, two-run outing against the Astros. Current Tigers are 3-for-34 lifetime against him. He has owned these guys.
So the first game could be a low scoring affair and the other two games look the same. Game 2 is Logan Allen, also coming off his best start of the year, against Kenta Maeda, who is 1-1, 5.02 ERA. Game 3 will be Tanner Bibee against 24-year-old right-hander Reese Olson, who has a 2.70 ERA but is 0-4 due to no run support.
The Guardians have been inconsistent scoring runs recently due to in large part to slumps by Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor. But they both homered yesterday so hopefully they will get back to being the highly productive hitters they were in April. They will need to be if Steven Kwan and his .353 batting average are out for a while.
The Guardians have been on a mini-slugging spree. They have scored 11 runs in the last two games, all on home runs. Even Hedgie hit one. And hopefully more slugging is on the way as the Kyle Manzardo era starts tomorrow.
The Guardians are 4.0 games ahead of the 4th place Tigers.
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