Detroit Tigers round out road trip with weekend in Texas

The Detroit Tigers begin a new month and end their long western road trip with a weekend series in Texas against the Rangers.

July was by no means a good month for the Detroit Tigers, although it did end on a high note with Detroit taking two of three games against the Angels in Anaheim. The Tigers went 5-20 last month and continue to struggle through one of the worst seasons in team and possibly league history, but August is a new month.

To kick off the month of August, Detroit closes out its long western road trip with a three-game weekend series in Texas against the Rangers. The Rangers currently sit exactly at .500 with a 54-54 record and 7.5 GB from an American League wild-card spot and will likely be looking at this weekend as an opportunity to possibly gain some ground by getting some wins over the worst team in the league.

For the Detroit Tigers, the rest of 2019 should mainly be focused on letting young up-and-comers get some major league reps. We’ve already begun to see that in the form of Jake Rogers, who was called up from Triple-A earlier this week and made his MLB debut for the Tigers on Tuesday.

In his first big league game, Rogers showed off his defensive quickness behind the plate, although he is yet to catch a runner stealing in the majors. However, in his first two MLB games, Rogers was even more impressive on the offensive side of the plate, going 2-4 and knocking in an RBI single on Tuesday and following that up with a solo home run on Wednesday helping lead Detroit to a 9-1 victory over the Angels.

Another new face Tigers fans are going to get the chance to see in this series is that of Travis Demeritte, one of the players Detroit acquired from the Atlanta Braves at the trade deadline on Wednesday. According to Chris McCosky of The Detroit News on Twitter, Demeritte is in the lineup Friday night’s series opener, batting seventh and starting in right field.

Taking the mound for the Detroit Tigers in the first game of the series is another rookie, Tyler Alexander. Alexander is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA through three starts with the Tigers this year. The right-hander struck out nine batters in his last outing against Seattle on Saturday but allowed four earned runs on eight hits and barely lasted more than four innings.

Going against Alexander on the mound Friday is Lance Lynn, who has been on an absolute tear as of late for the Rangers. The righty is 13-6 with a 3.83 ERA in 22 starts with Texas this season and has gone six innings or more in 17 consecutive starts.

This weekend provides the first real chance for Detroit baseball fans to see how the Tigers’ post-trade deadline roster can do. With Shane Greene gone, the closer position is open, although Joe Jiménez looks like the obvious choice to step in, at least for now. After not being traded, Matthew Boyd is scheduled to start game two of the series on Saturday, and we will get the chance to see how a couple of young guys continue to develop.

First pitch of the series is set for 8:05 pm EST on Friday night from Globe Life Park in Arlington.