Detroit @ Baltimore preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 2, 2010 ) Detroit 1, Baltimore 2

The Detroit Tigers spent the first half of the season battling for first place in the American League Central. Now they need a win on the final day just to finish .500.

The visiting Tigers will be hoping to avoid a season-ending sweep when they face the Baltimore Orioles in the finale of a four-game set on Sunday.

Detroit was in first place as late as July 10, but losses in 14 of 18 games to end the month of July dropped the Tigers into third place - six games out - at the beginning of August. They never recovered from that stretch, losing eight of 10 at the beginning of August to fall 10 games back and five games below .500.

While the starting pitching outside of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer certainly was nothing spectacular, it was the offense that really went down in the second half. Miguel Cabrera remained steady as usual and is on the short list of AL MVP candidates, but great rookie debuts from Austin Jackson, and especially Brennan Boesch, cooled off as the league started to catch up.

Magglio Ordonez was lost for the season on July 25 due to right ankle surgery and Carlos Guillen has been out since the middle of August with a bruised right knee.

Detroit looked like it would at least end the season on a strong note when it swept the playoff-bound Minnesota Twins last weekend to pull five games over .500, but three straight losses to the lowly Cleveland Indians and losses in the first three games against the Orioles have the Tigers again searching for one more win to avoid a losing campaign.

Baltimore has been assured of a losing season for quite some time, but they certainly haven’t been willing to roll over. The Orioles were a combined 32-75 under Dave Trembley and Juan Samuel this season before Buck Showalter took over in early August. They have gone 34-22 under Showalter, offering some hope that their talented young team can find its way soon.

Brad Bergesen will be looking to end his season on a strong note when he takes the mound today. The 25-year-old right-hander is one of the many players on the Baltimore squad who has seen their performances tick up under the guidance of Showalter.

Bergensen had a string of five straight starts in which he allowed two earned runs or less snapped earlier in the week at Tampa Bay, when he was touched for five runs on six hits in five innings to suffer a loss. But the bad outings have been less frequent since Showalter has taken over, with Bergensen allowing more than three earned runs just twice since the end of July.

He lost to the Tigers on July 7, surrendering four runs and 11 hits in six innings.