Detroit Tigers (12-13) at Cleveland Indians (16-8)
Probable Pitchers:
Friday April 29, 7:05p:
RHP Max Scherzer (4-0, 3.19) vs. RHP Jeanmar Gomez (0-1, 7.36)
DET - Max Scherzer (1-3, 5.73, 13 BB, 22 K vs. Cleveland)
Hitter to Fear: Travis Hafner (.600, 1 HR, 3 RBI vs. Scherzer)
Hitter to Fail: Asdrubal Cabrera (1 for 8, 4 K vs. Scherzer)
CLE - Jeanmar Gomez (1-1, 4.50, 4 BB, 5 K vs. Detroit)
Hitter to Fear: Will Rhymes (3 for 3, 1 BB vs. Gomez)
Hitter to Fail: Brennan Boesch (1 for 5, 1 K vs. Gomez)
Saturday April 30, 6:05p:
RHP Rick Porcello (1-2, 4,76 ERA) vs. RHP Alex White (0-0, - ERA)
DET - Rick Porcello (4-0, 2.28, 9 BB, 21 K vs. Cleveland)
Hitter to Fear: Asdrubal Cabrera (.333, 5 for 15 vs. Porcello)
Hitter to Fail: Grady Sizemore (.250, 3 K vs. Porcello)
CLE - Alex White (Has never faced Detroit)
Hitter to Fear: Has never faced a Detroit hitter
Hitter to Fail: Has never faced a Detroit hitter
Sunday May 1, 1:05p:
LHP Phil Coke (1-4, 4.88) vs. RHP Justin Masterson (5-0, 2.18)
DET - Phil Coke (1-2, 2.08, 5 BB, 2 K vs. Cleveland)
Hitter to Fear: Matt LaPorta (.500, 1 2B vs. Coke)
Hitter to Fail: Shin-Soo Choo (0 for 6, 1 K vs. Coke)
CLE - Justin Masterson (0-2, 6.10, 8 BB, 25 K vs. Detroit)
Hitter to Fear: Miguel Cabrera (.500, 1 HR, 4 RBI vs. Masterson)
Hitter to Fail: Jhonny Peralta (0 for 6, 2 K vs. Masterson
Analysis:
The Tigers start this series tied for second place in the division and 4.5 games back from the Central leading Cleveland Indians. Max Scherzer opens the series up and is coming off his strongest start of the season, going 8 innings giving up 4 hits against the White Sox. Indians counter with Jeanmar Gomez, who only has 1 start in 2011. In that start, he gave up 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings of work.
Rick Porcello returns to the starting rotation after his nine days off, he comes back to face an Indians team he has dominated in his career. Indians called up Alex White yesterday to make the spot start, he was 1-0 with a 1.90 ERA in Triple-A.
Tigers will see undefeated Indians starter Justin Masterson on Sunday, he has a chance to go 6-0 for the first time since Cliff Lee in 2008. Phil Coke will need to have his command back to make this a good pitching match-up, just be excited he's not playing the Mariners again.
I was just interviewed by Indians blog site WahooBlues.com about this upcoming series. Check it out!