Los Angeles @ Detroit preview
Comerica Park
Last Meeting ( Apr 30, 2010 ) LA Angels 6, Detroit 10
The Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim both lost key pieces to their recent success. After the first month of the season, however, the Tigers have handled the personnel changes a little better than the Angels.
When Detroit traded Curtis Granderson to the New York Yankees over the winter for a package of prospects, skeptics wondered if the belt-tightening Tigers were entering a rebuilding phase.
One month into the season, the answer is a resounding no.
Detroit rookies Austin Jackson, Scott Sizemore and Brennan Boesch are hitting a combined .314. Jackson leads the American League with 36 hits and Boesch has driven in seven runs in his first six games.
Veterans like Johnny Damon (.329) and Miguel Cabrerea (.344, five home runs, 25 RBIs) have provided stability, allowing the Tigers to end the first month of the season four games over .500 and 1 1/2 games behind the division-leading Minnesota Twins.
Detroit needs a victory on Saturday to extend its streak of winning or splitting series to four straight. The Tigers haven’t lost a series since losing two of three on the road against the Seattle Mariners on April 16-18.
The Angels haven’t fared quite as well.
They lost staff ace John Lackey to the Boston Red Sox and replaced him with Joel Pineiro, who was bludgeoned by the Tigers on Friday and is now carrying a 5.76 ERA.
Third baseman Chone Figgins was allowed to leave as a free agent and replaced by rookie Brandon Wood, who hit below .100 most of April before getting hot the final week. He is still hitting just .176 and has only homered once as the season turns to May.
All of that has negatively affected Los Angeles, which sits in a three-way tie with the Oakland Athletics and Mariners for first place in the AL West. The Texas Rangers are just a game behind in the most tightly bunched, mediocre division in all of baseball.
Scott Kazmir, who is trying to fill the hole left by Lackey’s departure, will go to the mound Saturday attempting to win three consecutive starts for the first time in two years. He will be opposed by Jeremy Bonderman, who retired 11 straight in his last start against Texas before fading.
Bonderman has already faced the Angels once this year and allowed three runs in six innings. He’ll have to keep an eye on Torii Hunter, who has homered in consecutive games and is 14-for-36 in his career against Bonderman.