Detroit Tigers (32-42) vs. Minnesota Twins (39-38)
When: 7:15 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Comerica Park in Detroit.
TV: Fox.
Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1 in Detroit; Tigers radio affiliates).
Probable pitchers: Tigers RHP Reese Olson (0-2, 5.59 ERA) vs. Twins RHP Pablo López (3-4, 4.40).
Tigers lineup:
1. RF Zach McKinstry.
2. 1B Spencer Torkelson
3. LF Kerry Carpenter
4. SS Javier Báez.
5. 3B Nick Maton.
6. 2B Andy Ibáñez.
7. DH Miguel Cabrera.
8. C Eric Haase.
9. CF Jake Marisnick.
FRIDAY’S LOSS: Detroit Tigers strike out 16 times in 4-1 loss to Minnesota Twins
Game notes: The crooked numbers in Pablo López’s ERA can’t be fun to see for Twins fans; the franchise, after all, picked up López from the Miami Marlins in the offseason for extreme contact hitter Luis Arraez in what seemed like a straightforward hitting-for-pitching swap. But while López has been inconsistent — four starts with one earned run or less allowed and four starts with at least five earned — Arraez has been almost metronomic in his pursuit of hitting .400 with multi-hit performances in 31 of his 70 games entering Friday.
Still, López will be the one on the mound for the Twins, not Arraez, on Saturday night. He throws a five-pitch mix with a 4-seam fastball (34.6%), a sweeper (21.7%) and a changeup (21.3%) accounting for the majority of his pitches. The Tigers, as a team, are hitting just .226 off sweepers this season, which is actually seventh in the majors and well above the league average of .201. (The Texas Rangers lead the league in batting average off sweepers at .297, a full 40 points higher than the Boston Red Sox at No. 2.)
The Tigers will send rookie Reese Olson to the mound for his fifth career appearance; the 23-year-old allowed four runs (three earned) over six innings on Monday against the Kansas City Royals, though he ended up with a no-decision in the Tigers’ 6-4 win. Olson opened his big-league career with back-to-back games in which he allowed three hits or less over five innings, then was victimized for seven runs (six earned) by the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. The Twins’ offense doesn’t quite stack up to the Braves’, though as Friday night’s game in Detroit showed, they can hit mistakes a long, long ways.
After tonight, the Tigers and Twins wrap up the series with a 1:40 start Sunday on Bally Sports Detroit. The Tigers will then head down to Texas to face the Rangers, another team that feasts at the plate, while the Twins get a day off before facing, well, those Braves.
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Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.