Tigers invade Twinkie Town – Detroit at Minnesota

Detroit Tigers make their way to the twin cities and take aim at their fourth straight win this evening as they play the first of three games against the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome. The Tigers moved ahead of the AL Central leading Royals who have seen their lead slip away thanks to zero production from their offence.

The Tigers are fresh off a sweep of the lowly Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. It was in large part to the play of Adam Everett who went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs batted in, and Jeff Larish hit a solo homer. Curtis Granderson added a two-run single for the Tigers, who have been playing well of late, winning six of their last eight.

Minnesota has welcomed back their star catcher, Joe Mauer, who has been on a tear since returning from offseason kidney surgery that cost him the first 22 games of the year. He’s been seeing the ball really well and has a .485 batting average with three home runs and 10 RBI to show for it. The two games that Mauer has had an off nights though, have come against the Tigers. He was 0-7 with three strikeouts in those two games but that just tells me he’s due for a breakout game against their division rivals.

Here are some trends as they relate to this game:

Detroit:

• DET are 1-8 in their last 9 Tue. games.

• Under is 7-1 in DET last 8 Tue. games.

• DET are 3-9 in their last 12 games on field turf.

Minnesota:

• MIN are 45-21 in their last 66 home games.

• MIN are 7-1 in Sloweys last 8 home starts.

• Over is 6-2 in Sloweys last 8 starts overall.

The Tigers give the ball to Armando Galarraga who is 3-2 with a 4.08 ERA. Galarraga will look to keep the momentum going as the Tigers have had a tough time winning in Minnesota over the years.

It only took one inning for the White Sox to get to Galarraga last game as Chicago got five runs on three hits and two walks in the first. Despite putting together five solid innings after that, as he scattered only three more hits over his next five innings, the damage had already been done. That was the second start in a row that Galarraga surrendered five runs or more, and the miniscule 1.85 ERA has jumped up to a very ordinary 4.08 because of a few bad innings. It won’t get any easier for the young right hander as he is 0-4 with a 5.23 ERA in six career games against the Twins.

Kevin Slowey is on the bump for the Tigers and is sporting a 4-1 mark with a 5.50 ERA. He is looking to bounce back from his first loss of the season which came in a very strange outing as there were four separate rain delays that totaled close to four hours of down time, not ideal for a pitching arm.

His 4-1 record is impressive but also deceiving as the 5.50 ERA tells a better story of how well a pitcher has been throwing the ball. Minnesota has always played the Tigers tough and the trends seem to support a Twinkie win in this one.

The Pick: Minnesota Twins (-140)