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

The Detroit Tigers travel to Cleveland for the first time this season to take on the Guardians in a three-game weekend series.

The Detroit Tigers head to Cleveland this weekend, a place where they have struggled mightily in recent years. The Tigers have not won the season series against Cleveland since 2015. The Guardians are 77-27 against Detroit in that timeframe.

This will, of course, be the first time the two teams have played since Cleveland’s name change. Tigers fans can only hope that it will serve as a good luck charm for them.

The Guardians were thought of to be a weak team offensively coming into the season, but so far that hasn’t been the case. The team is currently second in the American League in team batting average, fifth in OPS, and fourth in runs scored. This is largely thanks to breakout seasons from infielders Owen Miller and Andres Gimenez, as well as rookie outfielder Steven Kwan. Josh Naylor was having a fantastic season as well before recently being placed on the 10-day IL.

Their pitching, once thought of as a strength of their organization, has struggled a bit to start the season. The team is currently 13th in the AL in team ERA and 14th in strikeouts. Starting pitcher Aaron Civale, who will start Friday’s game, has particularly struggled, with an ERA of 9.85 and a WHIP of 1.74.

After a hot start, the Guardians have been playing slightly sub-.500 ball over the past 20 games. But if history is any indication, they’ll be pretty motivated seeing that old English D on the opposing team’s uniform.

With all that being said, here are three things to watch out for in this weekend division series.

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.

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.