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We can now effectively say that the Detroit Tigers have shaken off their early-season issues against the Cleveland Indians. After thoroughly dominating them a season ago, the Tigers found themselves on the losing end of games against the Indians earlier this season, when Cleveland held the lead in the AL Central division. Well, the Tighers are now on a four-game winning streak, three of which came in a mostly-competitive sweep over Cleveland in their last three outings.
It all wrapped up on Sunday, when the Tigers took a 10-8 victory in extra innings to wrap up the sweep, coming off of 10-2 and 6-1 victories in games one and two, respectively. They're now 1.5 games back in the AL Central division, trailing the Chicago White Sox. Detroit doesn't play Chicago again until Aug. 31, so winning these games and making up ground this way is very important.
On Monday, they'll begin a four-game set against the New York Yankees, who are winners in three of their last four games. Prior to those four games though, the Yankees were on a four-game losing streak and have been struggling since the All-Star break.
Ivan Nova will be taking the mound in game one for the Yankees. He's 10-5 on the season with a 4.53 earned run average, which took a big hit in his most recent outing against Baltimore, in which he lasted five innings and gave up nine earned runs. It was, obviously, a loss. He'll be up against Justin Verlander, who is 11-7 on the season but has been pitching great with minimal run support. He gave up three runs over five innings in his last outing, but sports a 2.63 ERA on the season.
Game one is set for 7:00 p.m. eastern on Monday at Comerica Park in Detroit.