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Detroit Tigers vs Minnesota Twins Game 2 Preview, TV Coverage, Lineup

By Matt Pelc

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Detroit Tigers (1-0) vs Minnesota Twins (0-1)— 1:08 PM

Comerica Park — Detroit, MI

TV: FSD, For out-of-market fans, most cable and satellite providers have a free preview of MLB Extra Innings in the season’s first week)

Radio: 97.1 The Ticket (click for affiliates)

Weather: 43 degrees, showers

Game Preview 

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The Detroit Tigers will look to start 2-0 for the third straight season as they (probably) take on the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday after an offday following the Opening Day victory on Monday.

We say “probably” because the weather (see above) doesn’t look promising. Seeing how the Twins make two more trips into Detroit after this series, it is not out of the realm of possibility this game will be washed or “colded” out. It happened last season as well, when a three-game opening series at Comerica Park against Kansas City was shortened into a two-game series because of weather.

When We Last Met

We discussed Monday’s Opening Day win in detail on Tuesday’s podcast. Please give it a listen. The “Reader’s Digest” version is that we thought that the Detroit Tigers may not play a more perfect, well-rounded game the rest of the season. They received overpowering pitching from David Price, excellent defense and timely hitting in the 4-0 shutout of the Minnesota Twins.

Pitching Matchup

Anibal Sanchez (8-5, 3.43 in 2014) will receive his first of hopefully many starts for the Detroit Tigers this season on Wednesday. Sanchez may have been the Tigers’ most consistent pitcher last year when healthy, but two stints on the DL dented his productivity, leading to just eight wins. Sanchez led the AL with a 2.57 ERA and notched 14 wins in 2013, so when he is healthy, he’s a force.

His earlier DL trip began in a game against the Twins at Target Field. He had no-hit Minnesota into the fourth inning but had to leave the game because of a blister on the middle finger of his throwing hand. Later in the year he left another game in Toronto and missed a significant amount of time down the stretch with a strained pectoral muscle.

Sanchez was great in three starts against Minnesota last year, winning one of those games and posted a 2.70 ERA.

Minnesota’s original starter for this game was free agent acquisition Ervin Santana, but he was suspended last week for testing positive for a banned substance and will be out until early July. Just a huge blow to the Twins. Instead they will turn to Ricky Nolasco.

His first year in Minnesota was a disaster for the long-time Florida/Miami Marlin, going 6-12 with an astonishingly high ERA of 5.38. Amazingly the one team he did match up well against in the worst season of his career was the Tigers, going 1-0 with a 2.33 ERA in three starts.

Detroit Tigers Lineup 

  1. Anthony Gose-CF
  2. Ian Kinsler-2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera-1B
  4. Victor Martinez-DH
  5. J.D. Martinez-RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes-LF
  7. Nick Castellanos-3B
  8. Alex Avila-C
  9. Jose Iglesias-SS

Injuries

Tigers

Twins

Next: Verlander to DL

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