Tigers name Luis Marte starter for regular-season finale

The Detroit Tigers will be sending Luis Marte (0-0, 3.32 ERA) to the mound for their season finale against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, according to a tweet sent Tigers director of media relations, Brian Britten. It will be Marte's first career start. He has appeared in 12 games for the Tigers this year, striking out 17 over 19 innings. Marte's longest appearance of the season was 3⅔ innings, so it's unlikely that he'll pitch late into the game.

The final game of the year is essentially meaningless for both teams, as the Tigers are locked into the three seed for the playoffs, and the Royals have already been eliminated. The only thing of note about the game is Miguel Cabrera's chase for the Triple Crown, in which he leads in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in heading into the regular season finale. The last hitter to earn the Triple Crown was Boston's Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.