Weekend Preview

The Tigers are now past the week portion of the rotation (I’m looking right at you, Armando Galarraga) and should receive solid pitching the rest of the weekend down in Baltimore.  The Tigers got a healthy dose of Luke Scott last night as he helped the Orioles take a 5-1 win from Detroit.

Here’s a quick look at the pitching match ups for the rest of the weekend:

• Friday: Dontrelle Willis vs. Brad Bergesen (1-2, 5.49)  Bergesen is a rookie this season and has obviously never faced the Tigers.  He is a 23-year-old righty who has practiced the “bend, don’t break” strategy so far this season.  He has yet to give up more than five earned runs in a single start, but has given up at least four earned runs in four of his seven starts this season.  You’d like to think the Tigers could get something going against him.
• Saturday: Justin Verlander vs. Jeremy Guthrie (4-4, 4.90)  Guthrie is a league-average pitcher.  That’s not a slight against him, but he’s not Justin Verlander.  Not even close.  Guthrie started a game against the Tigers last season and got hit around pretty good. He went six innings and gave up 12 hits, two walks and four runs.  The way Justin has been pitching lately, anything they can get off of Guthrie should be more than enough.
• Sunday: Edwin Jackson vs. Jason Berken (1-0, 3.60)  Berken, a 25-year old righty, has made only one career start and it was a few days ago against Toronto.  Berken got the win but allowed 10 baserunners in his five innings of work.  He made five starts in AA to start the season and posted a 1.07 ERA, prompting a promotion to AAA where he had an ERA over 5.00 in two starts before getting the call to join Baltimore.  Injuries have helped press him into duty now, even though he may not be ready to contribute all that much.  Again, it’d be nice to see the Tigers offense tee off on a guy like Berken.

I think the main key for the Tigers pitchers is to avoid Luke Scott like the plague.  Walk him every single time he comes up if you have to, just don’t throw him anything he can drive.  We have seen way too many times what happens when he can put the bat on the ball against the Tigers.

The Tigers offense, save the two wins against the KC, has been a bit sluggish lately.  The Tigers are facing some inexperienced pitchers in this series, in a park that is fairly easy to hit home runs in.  They needed to get something going this weekend.  The pitching should take care of the rest.