Detroit @ Los Angeles preview

Last Meeting ( Jun 22, 2011 ) Detroit 7, LA Dodgers 5

Two teams that haven’t been tight about spending money in recent years square off when the Los Angeles Dodgers host the Detroit Tigers in Tuesday's opener of the two-game series. Both teams got off to good starts, the Dodgers winning four of their first five and the Tigers their first four before losing 3-1 to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday. A good sign for the Dodgers came Sunday when Matt Kemp and Hanley Ramirez each hit their first two home runs of the season in a 6-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants, only the second time in the history of the series that two Dodgers had more than one home run in the same game.

The hottest player for the Tigers is a player familiar with Southern California fans - outfielder Torii Hunter, the former Los Angeles Angel who has clubbed home runs in each of the last three games. Hunter, who will turn 39 this summer, has 100 career at-bats against the Dodgers, producing four home runs among his 26 hits. Hunter, a teammate of Dodgers starter Dan Haren for 2 1/2 seasons in Anaheim, went 0-for-3 off the right-hander last May when Haren was with the Washington Nationals.

TV: 10:10 p.m. ET, MLB Network, SportsNet LA, Fox Sports Detroit

PITCHING MATCHUP: Tigers RH Max Scherzer (0-0, 0.00) vs. Dodgers RH Dan Haren (1-0, 0.00)

Scherzer picked up where he left off following his American League Cy Young season of 2013, throwing eight shutout innings Wednesday in a 2-1 victory against the Kansas City Royals. For all the success he has had the last four seasons in Detroit, he still has some payback to do against the National League West. Scherzer, who was 9-15 with the Arizona Diamondbacks in his first two major league seasons, is 5-10 in his career against the NL West, including 1-3 against the Dodgers with a 4.45 ERA, though he hasn’t faced Los Angeles since 2011.

Haren and Scherzer were teammates in Arizona in 2008 and 2009, but that was also a different time in Haren’s career as he combined to go 30-18 in those seasons and kept his ERA in the low 3s in both years. Haren, who went winless in his next 11 starts after beating the Tigers last May, hasn’t had a winning season since finishing 16-10 with the Angels in 2011 and much is being placed on his shoulders with the absence of staff ace Clayton Kershaw due to inflammation in his back that’s expected to sideline him the rest of this month. Haren has already responded with a strong start, allowing no earned runs in six innings Wednesday against the San Diego Padres, helping the Dodgers to a 5-1 victory.

WALK-OFFS

1. Dodgers RF Yasiel Puig had an MRI on his left thumb Sunday that revealed a strained ligament and his availability for the series opener is questionable.

2. Dodgers RHP Chad Billingsley, who underwent Tommy John surgery last April, made his first rehabilitation start Sunday but left after the first inning of the Single-A game because of a “little sensation” in the elbow, but the Dodgers later announced that Billingsley was fine.

3. Hunter’s career-long home run streak is four games.

PREDICTION: Tigers 8, Dodgers 2