(Sports Network) - Atlanta's Tommy Hanson and Detroit's Justin Verlander will try to bounce back from their worst performances of the campaign, as the Braves go for a three-game sweep of the Tigers today at Turner Field.
Hanson, one of the top young pitchers in the game, allowed career highs of nine earned runs and 13 hits in a 9-6 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday. He lasted just 3 2/3 innings and failed to record a strikeout for the first time. The 23-year-old had been 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in his prior five starts before the disastrous outing.
This will be the right-hander's first career appearance against Detroit.
As for Verlander, he didn't fare much better on Tuesday, surrendering five earned runs and five hits in just two innings of a 14-6 loss to the New York Mets. It marked the shortest outing since Sept. 1, 2008 for the hard throwing right-hander, who had won seven of nine starts with a 2.71 ERA before the failure on the road.
Verlander made his only career start against the Braves a good one, yielding one run and striking out 11 in seven innings of a 2-1 victory at Turner Field in 2007.
The Tigers are hoping Verlander can duplicate that performance today, as they try to salvage the final game of the series following a 4-3 loss on Saturday.
Chipper Jones hit a three-run home run and Kenshin Kawakami snapped a long winless streak to lift the Braves to victory in the middle installment of a three-game interleague set.
Eric Hinske drove in the other run, while Kawakami (1-9) finally got a win as he gave up just one run on two hits with three walks and six strikeouts over seven innings for the Braves, who have won 16 of 17 at Turner Field to improve to a major league-best 26-7 at home.
Kawakami had gone a total of 21 games, including 14 starts, since his last win on Aug. 31, 2009 against Florida. He was 0-11 during that time.
"Huge win for us and it was good to get one for Kawakami," said Jones. "I don't know what was going on in the last inning but it made it a lot closer than it should have been. Luckily we had enough to get the win."
Miguel Cabrera hit his 20th home run of the season and drove in another for the Tigers, who have dropped four of five.
Max Scherzer went 5 2/3 innings in the start and was charged with just three hits and four walks with eight strikeouts.
Joel Zumaya (2-1) was tagged with the loss for giving up the homer to Jones.
Detroit swept the Braves when these teams last met back in 2007 and has won five of seven in the series.