You’re not gonna believe this, but the Guardians are playing a doubleheader today
It’s been a bumpy rebuild for the Detroit Tigers, but they got a glimpse at the bright future with Riley Greene hitting his first career home run Saturday, a walk-off against the Royals. It’d be nice if the Guardians could send them back into the darkness for a couple of days.
Greene has been everything the Tigers could have hoped for and more in his first 13 games in the majors. He’s slashing .292/.414/.417 and has been a stark contrast to the disappointing start of Spencer Torkelson, who is slashing .194/.285/.302 with five home runs in his 70 games. Green currently leads the Tigers roster (among players with 50 PA) with a 146 wRC+.
Cleveland desperately needs this series to be a confidence builder one way or another. Following a tough series against the Twins in which they relied on clutch hitting in the ninth to pull off wins, and a demoralizing doubleheader loss to the Yankees Saturday, a vintage stomping of the Tigers would do them some good right now.
This four-game series, which includes a makeup of a rainout on May 27, will be the third matchup between these two teams this season. The other two were cut short by rain and there’s a slight possibility it could happen again with rain in the forecast for Detroit tomorrow. Let’s hope not, because I don’t know how many doubleheaders one team can take. On top of the one today (and the other two in the last week) the Guardians will also play two against the White Sox on July 12 and July 23 in makeup games.
Konnor Pilkington is expected to start Game 2 of today’s doubleheader, with Zach Plesac taking on Garrett Hill in his MLB debut in Game 1. James Karinchak will also be available out of the ‘pen for the first time since a shoulder injury and lack of sticky stuff limited him to just one inning in September and October.
While the Guardians are getting healthier (José Ramírez’s potential thumb injury notwithstanding), the Tigers injury list remains massive. Their already-thin pitching staff is without Matt Manning, Casey Mize, and Spencer Turnbull; Austin Meadows, who they acquired in a trade with the Rays earlier this season, hasn’t played since June 15 — first because of an illness, then an immediate transfer to the injured list with strains of his left and right Achillies. Oh, and the guy they traded for him, Isaac Paredes, is maybe the hottest player on the planet right now not named Shohei Ohtani.
The Guardians lost their last game against the Tigers, 2-1, and are 2-3 against them on the season.
Team at a glance
- Record: 30-47 (13th in AL)
- Runs Scored: 231 (15th in AL)
- Run Differential: -101 (14th in AL)
- Last 10: 4-6
- Slash: .228/.285/.335
- wOBA: .275 (14th in AL)
- wRC+: 77 (14th in AL)
- ERA: 4.11 (12th in AL)
- SIERA: 4.08 (12th in AL)
- K-BB%: 12.6% (12th in AL)
Projected starters
Monday, July 4, 1:10 p.m. ET: RHP Garrett Hill vs. RHP Zach Plesac
Monday, July 4, 6:40 p.m. ET: RHP Alex Faedo vs. TBD (RHP Konnor Pilkington?)
Tuesday, July 5, 7:10 p.m. ET: TBD vs. RHP Cal Quantrill
Wednesday, July 6, 1:10 p.m. ET: RHP Michael Pineda vs. RHP Shane Bieber