Arizona @ Detroit preview
Comerica Park
Last Meeting ( May 18, 2008 ) Detroit 0, Arizona 4
The National League is proving to be very little of a challenge for the Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers will be looking to push their winning streak to seven games when they open a three-game series against the NL West-worst Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.
After dropping their first two interleague games of the season to the Los Angeles Dodgers last month, Detroit has ripped off seven consecutive wins against NL opponents, including back-to-back sweeps against the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals in the past week.
The surge has moved the Tigers to within 1 ½ games of the slumping Minnesota Twins at the top of the American League central.
The offense was on display for Detroit against the Nationals, piling up 23 runs in three games and ending the series with 19 hits on Thursday. Ramon Santiago went 4-for-4 in the contest and Miguel Cabrera drove in three runs to push his AL-leading total to 59 RBIs.
Cabrera also paces the AL with 19 homers and is batting .332 from the cleanup spot. His great start seems to be rubbing off on Magglio Ordonez, who is batting .330 with eight homers and 43 RBI in 55 games while batting in front of Cabrera. Ordonez knocked in just 50 runs in 131 games last season.
Both Cabrera and Ordonez have benefited from a new top of the order, with rookie Austin Jackson ranking second on the team behind Cabrera with 77 hits and free agent pickup Johnny Damon getting on base at a .380 clip from the No. 2 spot.
Hoping to reap the rewards of that offense tonight will be right-hander Armando Galarraga. Still enjoying the national spotlight after his perfect game was ruined with two outs in the ninth inning by a bad call at first base back on June 2, Galarraga has followed that up with two strong performances.
The right-hander has allowed two earned runs in each of his last two starts, though he did not factor in the decision in either outing. Galarraga does not have overpowering stuff - recording only 13 strikeouts in 33 2/3 innings this season - but compensates by keeping the ball in the strike zone and limiting walks (just seven this season).
He faced the Diamondbacks once in 2008, allowing two runs and one hit in six innings to earn the win.
Arizona has not had much fun in interleague play, getting swept by the Boston Red Sox in a three-game series that ended Thursday. While their NL-worst pitching staff let them down somewhat, it was the offense that really struggled, managing an average of three runs per game against Boston’s staff.
Thursday’s 8-5 setback was the Diamondback’s 13th straight road loss - a franchise record.
Former Tiger Edwin Jackson will get the start for Arizona and is looking to snap a four-start winless streak. Jackson spent the 2009 season with Detroit, going 13-9 with a 3.62 ERA. He went 7-3 with a 4.27 mark at Comerica Park.