Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Guardians: 3 things to watch out for

1. Can the Detroit Tigers’ offense wake up against Cleveland’s struggling pitching staff?

The Tigers’ offense continues to be their weakest link, despite the mounting injuries to their pitching staff. The power is finally starting to show up, as they’ve homered in six straight games, but they still haven’t been able to put it all together.

Friday’s game against Aaron Civale seems like the perfect opportunity to get off on the right foot. The 26-year-old is giving up almost 13 hits per nine as well as 2.2 homers per nine. If there’s a game where the Tigers can get break out of their season-long slump, this appears to be it.

Saturday and Sunday will be much tougher, with Cleveland sending former AL Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber and the red hot Triston McKenzie to the mound, respectively. Bieber has had a solid season to this point, although pretty pedestrian by his standards. He hasn’t been striking out as many batters as we’ve grown accustomed to seeing.

McKenzie hasn’t been striking out a ton of batters either, but he’s been limiting the traffic on the basepaths. He’s got a WHIP of 0.96 this season, tops among Cleveland’s starting pitchers.

Cleveland’s bullpen as been alright, with 3.56 ERA, good for 13th in MLB. Emmanuel Clase and his 100+ mph cutter is still a menace in the backend. Despite the pitching staff’s stuggles, the Tigers will have to be on their A-game if they want to score some runs.

2. Will Alex Faedo be able to continue his hot start?

Alex Faedo is scheduled to start Saturday’s game, and he is off to a fine start to his big league career, with a 2.87 ERA is three starts, giving his team a chance to win each time. The things that’s been the most encouraging about Faedo has been the swing-and-miss, a huge concern before his call-up. He’s got a 14% swinging strike percentage so far, 35th in the league among starting pitchers according to Pitcher List.

Everyone talks about his slider, and rightfully so, as it has currently has a CSW% of 35.1%. But his changeup has been his most underrated pitch to this point. Hitters are batting just .143 against it so far, with a runs above average of 2.0.

Faedo’s emergence couldn’t have come at a better time considering all the injuries this rotation has gone through. With Eduardo Rodriguez’s injury on Wednesday, the Tigers could now field an entire pitching rotation with pitchers on the IL.

Could this be the start where Faedo comes back down to earth? It’s certainly possible. He wouldnt be the first young Tigers’ hurler to have a clunker at Progressive Field. Both Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning had starts there last year that were among their worst of the season. Time will tell if Faedo is up to the task.

3. Can the Detroit Tigers get monkey off their backs against Cleveland?

We’ve already established how much the Tigers have struggled against the Guardians over the past six seasons. It’s never a good feeling when Tigers fans see them on the schedule.

Friday night seems like a good time to turn over a new leaf with budding ace Tarik Skubal on the hill. He gives the Tigers the best chance to win whenever he’s on the mound.

The team needs to hit, and they need to hit with RISP. We saw it against the Baltimore Orioles last weekend. We know they’re capable of competent hitting. Now we just need to see consistency.

They also need to just stay healthy. Even for as much pitching depth as the team has, they can’t afford anymore injuries, especially with Matt Manning suffering a small setback in yesterday’s rehab start.

Cleveland has owned Detroit in recent years. There’s no denying that. But it’s a new season. The Detroit Tigers have a chance to start anew and end Cleveland’s dominance over them. Like A.J. Hinch keeps saying, they just have to play better.