SERIES PREVIEW: Kansas City Royals vs Detroit Tigers

Fresh off a solid 5-1 road trip, the (20-18) Tigers square off against the (20-17) Kansas City Royals in Comerica Park. The Royals just took two of three from the Yankees in New York–improving their road record to 5-9. Nearly tied for second place in the A.L. Central, the Tigers look to jump ahead of the Royals and gain some ground on the division leading Indians this weekend.

SERIES PITCHING PREVIEW:

Friday May 13th 2011/Comerica Park/7:05 pm

Luke Hochevar, RHP

3-3, 4.91 ERA

Justin Verlander, RHP

3-3, 3.16 ERA

Saturday May 14th 2011/Comerica Park/4:10 pm

Jeff Francis, LHP

0-4, 5.09 ERA

VS

Brad Penny, RHP

3-3, 4.78 ERA

Kyle Davies, RHP

1-5, 7.08 ERA

Max Scherzer, RHP

6-0, 3.20 ERA

INJURY UPDATE:

WHO’S HOT

DETROIT:

• Victor Martinez is batting .519 with 5 doubles, 2 homers and 13 RBI in his last seven games!
• Jhonny Peralta is batting .476 with 1 double, 3 homers and 8 RBI in his last six games.
• Austin Jackson is batting .379 with 3 doubles, one homer and 7 RBI in his last seven games.

Kansas City:

• Eric Hosmer is batting .350 over his last seven games with two homers. The rookie first baseman has been a spark to the Royals this season.
• Aaron Crow has been a pleasant surprise for the Royals ‘pen this season. He has surrendered just two runs in 19 1/3 innings so far this season and is striking out nearly a batter an inning.

WHO’S COLD

DETROIT:

• Magglio Ordonez is batting .105 in his last 5 games and just .172 this season. I know Maggs will come around eventually but Leyland really needs to move him down in the order!
• Miguel Cabrera is in a bit of a mini-slump hitting just .152 in his last seven games. I don’t think that anyone is very concerned but it is worth mentioning.

KANSAS CITY:

• Alex Gordon is batting just .143 over his last six games. After an amazing first month this season, Gordon has finally returned to reality.
• Billy Butler is also slumping–aside from last night’s impressive performance–hitting just .118 over the last week.

SERIES PREDICTION:

With Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer on the mound this weekend I am quite confident that Detroit can win two of three. The Tigers must bring their A-Game this weekend though. The Royals have played pretty solid so far this season and Detroit has a tendency to both win and lose in large streaks this season. Hopefully the win streak continues for the Tigers this weekend! I think we all agree that Detroit needs to get as far above the .500 mark as they possibly can to avoid this catchup quest that they have fallen into this season.

*Injury Updates and Pitching Preview information obtained from MLB.COM

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