Detroit @ Seattle preview
Safeco Field
Last Meeting ( May 9, 2012 ) Detroit 1, Seattle 2
The Seattle Mariners will try to cool off the league’s hottest hitting team when they host the Detroit Tigers in the opener of a three-game series Tuesday. The Tigers entered the week batting a major-league leading .307, which was 30 points higher than the second-ranked Colorado Rockies. Detroit slowed down the streaking Oakland Athletics last weekend, winning the final two games of the three-game road series by a combined score of 17-4. The Mariners started the week ranked 25th in batting average (.225) and have been limited to three runs or less in 10 of 14 games.
Mariners second baseman Dustin Ackley returned to his former batting stance after a 3-for-30 start and collected two hits in his last 11 at-bats to raise his average to .122. After seeing his average drop from .273 as a rookie in 2011 to .226 last season, the Mariners are running short on patience with Ackley. Detroit first baseman Prince Fielder continues to look like an early American League MVP candidate, hitting a league-best .429 with four home runs and 19 RBIs. Torii Hunter, signed as a free agent in the offseason, has settled in nicely while batting .407 for the Tigers.
TV: 10:10 p.m. ET, Fox Sports Detroit, Root Sports (Seattle).
PITCHING MATCHUP: Tigers RH Doug Fister (2-0, 2.77 ERA) vs. Mariners RH Aaron Harang (2012: 10-10, 3.61)
Fister broke into the major leagues with Seattle, stringing together a 12-30 record in 59 starts from 2009 to 2011. He’s 20-11 since coming to Detroit in the middle of the 2011 season. He was better at Safeco Field than on the road during his time with the Mariners, owning a 9-16 mark in 35 appearances. He faced Seattle the only time in his career last May at Safeco, throwing seven shutout innings before the Mariners scored three runs in the ninth to win 3-2.
Harang was traded twice last week and lands back in the American League, where he spent 2002 and part of 2003 with the Athletics. He began this season with the Los Angeles Dodgers before their surplus of starting pitching forced him to the bullpen and then to the Rockies, where he was promptly flipped to the Mariners in another cost-cutting move. Harang hasn’t run into Detroit since 2006, but has allowed 14 hits and three home runs to Fielder in 44 at-bats.
WALK-OFFS
1. The Tigers entered the week having scored the second-most runs in the American League (68) and tied with the Boston Red Sox and Oakland for the league’s highest run differential (+21).
2. Tigers RHP Octavio Dotel has inflammation in his right elbow. He has been unavailable out of the bullpen the last two games3. The Mariners were the last major-league team to get a day off. After Monday's break in the schedule, they’ll play 16 straight days.
PREDICTION: Tigers 5, Mariners 2