(Sports Network) – The Detroit Tigers will try to avoid both rainy weather and a fourth straight loss this afternoon, when they play a doubleheader to open a four-game set with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.
The doubledip was made necessary when Thursday’s opener was postponed by rain.
The Tigers carried a four-game winning streak into their most recent series with the Cleveland Indians, but were swept in the three-game set. That includes a setback in both games of a doubleheader on Wednesday.
Detroit managed seven hits in the first game, but were blanked 4-0 by Mitch Talbot and Cleveland. The Tigers then dropped the night cap by a 4-3 margin as the Indians scored the eventual winning run on a suicide squeeze in the fifth inning.
Ryan Raburn hit a two-run homer for the Tigers in the second game, but Justin Verlander yielded four runs over seven innings with 10 strikeouts in having a four-start winning streak end.
Detroit played both games without Miguel Cabrera after announcing earlier in the day that the American League MVP candidate was shut down for the rest of the season due to a high right ankle sprain.
Drawing the assignment for the Tigers in today’s opener will be Jeremy Bonderman, who has not factored into the decision of his last three starts. The right-hander was hammered for seven runs on nine hits, three homers and two walks over four innings versus Minnesota on Saturday.
Bonderman is 8-9 with a 5.18 earned run average on the season and faces the Orioles for the first time in 2010. The 27-year-old is 2-3 with a 6.92 ERA in five lifetime starts versus them.
The Orioles head home for their final four games after a 4-5 road trip. They won for just the second time in seven games with a 2-0 triumph over Tampa Bay on Wednesday.
Kevin Millwood hurled seven scoreless innings for his fourth victory in 20 decisions this year, working around two hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.
Felix Pie notched a two-run triple in the win.
Second-year righty Chris Tillman will start the opener for Baltimore while seeking his first win since July 10. In five appearances since defeating Texas, 6-1, in Arlington, Tillman is 0-2 with three no-decisions while allowing 21 hits and 20 runs in 24 1/3 innings.
He’s made two career starts against the Tigers while posting a 4.26 earned run average in 12 2/3 innings, including a Sept. 12 no-decision in which he allowed a hit and a run in 6 2/3.
Tillman is 0-3 in five home starts in 2010.
Game two matches Detroit right-hander Rick Porcello, who’s won five straight decisions since falling to 5-11 on Aug. 19; against Baltimore’s Jeremy Guthrie, who’d won three in a row before an 11-3 drubbing by the New York Yankees on Sept. 18.
Guthrie has won 10 games for the third straight season after winning just seven between 2004 and 2007.
Porcello, who was 14-9 as a rookie in 2009, was a winner in his lone career start against the Orioles.
The Tigers have won six of their last eight over the Orioles and are visiting Baltimore for the first time this season.