Kansas City @ Detroit preview
Comerica Park
Last Meeting ( Sep 20, 2010 ) Kansas City 5, Detroit 7
The Detroit Tigers’ offense continues to hum along as the club heads into the second contest of a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.
Detroit (76-74) received three hits and three RBIs from Alex Alivia and Will Rhymes’ first career home run to record a 7-5 victory over the Royals on Monday.
Rhymes had to wait a while for the home run signal from the members of the umpire crew. They originally thought the ball came off the top of the wall before eventually reversing the decision. Rhymes is 4-for-11 with five runs batted in over his last three games.
The Tigers, who have won four straight and 11 of their last 17, are now averaging just over six runs per game over those 17 contests.
They took it to the White Sox last weekend, outscoring them, 24-12, over a three-game sweep. Surprisingly enough, American League MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera hasn’t had much to do with the offensive attack recently.
Cabrera, who leads the bigs with 119 RBIs, is in the middle of a 3-for-25 slump with eight strikeouts in those six games. He’s hitting just .196 this month, but has had success against Kansas City’s scheduled starter Bruce Chen, going 7-for-12 against the lefty with two home runs.
Chen (10-7, 4.70 ERA) takes the mound looking for his third straight win.
He held the Athletics to three runs over five innings to book a 6-3 win last Wednesday. Chen, who has 10 wins in 20 starts this season, is 2-0 with a 3.97 ERA over his last four outings but has had his problems with the Tigers. He is 1-1 in three starts against Detroit this season with a gaudy 7.07 ERA.
Detroit counters with Armando Galarraga (4-6, 4.27 ERA) on Tuesday.
Galarraga was supposed to get a start off the last time through the rotation to rest his elbow, but ended up being bumped up a day to fill in for Rick Porcello. The move didn’t help Galarraga any as he was hammered for seven earned runs over 3 2/3 innings.
The 6-foot-4 right-hander is 2-0 with a 1.87 ERA in seven career starts against the Royals and has allowed only two runs over 11 1/3 innings of work against them this season.
The Royals (61-88) are just 6-23 in their last 29 road games and have a team ERA of 5.41 as visitors this season. The Tigers, meanwhile, have won 11 of their last 15 home games and are hitting .280 in front of their home fans this season.