After ending their three-game winning streak with Tuesday’s 5-4 victory, the Detroit Tigers have another chance to win their first series of the season and end their opening homestand on a high note.
Max Scherzer takes the mound today, looking for his third win of the year. And if he pulls that off, he’ll be the first Tigers starting pitcher to win his first three starts since Mike Maroth did it in 2006. After a shaky first start against the Yankees, Scherzer held the Royals to one run over six innings last Friday.
Meanwhile, Josh Hamilton and his broken arm suffered in a head-first slide during Tuesday’s loss are the talk of baseball. The reigning AL MVP will be out for six to eight weeks as a result of the injury, and the Rangers begin figuring out how to deal with that on Wednesday.
Here are the starting lineups:
Texas Rangers
1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
2. Elvis Andrus, SS
3. Michael Young, DH
4. Adrian Beltre, 3B
5. Nelson Cruz, RF
6. David Murphy, LF
7. Mike Napoli, C
8. Mitch Moreland, 1B
9. Julio Borbon, CF
Detroit Tigers
1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Will Rhymes, 2B
3. Ryan Raburn, LF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Brennan Boesch, RF
7. Jhonny Peralta, SS
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Brandon Inge, 3B
Pitching for the Rangers is Dave Bush, who’s making a spot start after a rainout on Friday forced Texas to play a doubleheader on Saturday and threw their starting rotation out of whack.
To be frank, the Tigers should pound this guy. Bush was 8-13 with a 4.54 ERA for the Brewers last season. And in two career starts against Detroit, he has an 0-2 record and 11.37 ERA. I probably just jinxed the Tigers with that.
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