Detroit Tigers Previews

Game 46 preview: Twins at Tigers

Samuel Deduno makes his 2013 debut for the Twins against the Tigers, meanwhile Anibal Sanchez is trying to pick up his first win of the year against his Minnesota rivals.

By Kurt Mensching@KurtJustKurt May 24, 2013, 3:00pm EDT

Minnesota Twins (18-26) at Detroit Tigers (26-19)

Time/Place: 7:08 p.m., Comerica Park

SB Nation blog: Twinkie Town

Media: Fox Sports Detroit, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network

Pitching matchup: Samuel Deduno (2013 debut; 6-4, 4.44 ERA in 2012) vs. Anibal Sanchez (4-4, 2.77)

This marks Sanchez's third start against the Minnesota Twins. He has a 2.45 ERA in 11 innings against them this year, allowing seven hits and five walks. Naturally the Tigers lost both games by scoring two runs each of those games. You just can't depend on run support, can you?

Deduno started twice against the Tigers in 2012, allowing 10 runs in a tick over nine innings on the mound, and this will be his 2013 debut after three starts for Triple-A Rochester, none of which seem particularly notable. Jesse of Twinkie Town wrote: "clearly the Twins are looking at this differently than the fanbase. Possibly they see this as an opportunity to see whether or not Deduno has anything to offer the club in the future."

Seems like the kind of start that would have given the Tigers troubles in the past. (To be fair, whether that is true or not doesn't really matter, because as a fan base we are relatively certain every pitcher of that caliber will throw a shutout against Detroit based on Bruce Chen expectations alone.)

Outlook:

Can Miguel Cabrera continue his hot streak? More recently, he has six home runs in the last four games. Longer term, he's batting .355 / .424 / .668 with 50 home runs and 159 RBI in his last 162 games. Yet for your meaningless small sample size of the day there is this: Cabrera went just 1-for-5 against Deduno last year. Something's got to give! Odds are Cabrera comes out on the winning side of this battle, and his Tigers teammates likely will, too.

Yet this being baseball, who knows?

Prediction:

No hitter!

Interesting links at Twinkie Town:

Local idiot wants Mauer to hit dingers, fix roof -- Yes, this is satire. Yet ... well, it certainly sounds like a lot of sports radio callers (and more than a few hosts) we know, doesn't it?

The origin of a meme: 20-year-old Rick Porcello -- Porcello seems to inspire memes. TigerSnark's Rogo has a few ideas what Porcello does in his free time, for instance, which may or may not be true. Twinkie Town has its own meme that .. oh crap 2009 DO NOT READ DO NOT READ DO NOT READ