The Detroit Tigers will play the Kansas City Royals in Game 4 of their series on Thursday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
Tigers Preview
The Detroit Tigers are 43-52 this season and they have won four of their last six games. Detroit won Games 1 and 3 in this series by a score of 3-2 in both games. The Detroit pitching staff has a 4.41 ERA, a 1.24 WHIP, and a .242 opponent batting average this season. The Tigers offense has scored 373 runs with a .230 batting average and a .299 on base percentage. Spencer Torkelson is batting .232 with 14 home runs and 51 RBI’s for the Tigers. The projected starting pitcher for Detroit is Michael Lorenzen, who is 4-6 with a 3.75 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP over 93.2 innings pitched this year.
Royals Preview
The Kansas City Royals are 28-69 this season and they have lost 10 of their last 13 games. Kansas City won the second game in this series by a score of 11-10 on Tuesday night. The Kansas City pitching staff has a 5.24 ERA, a 1.44 WHIP, and a .264 opponent batting average. The Royals offense has scored 363 runs with a .233 batting average and a .294 on base percentage this year. Bobby Witt is batting .251 with 16 home runs and 51 RBI’s for the Royals. The projected starting pitcher for Kansas City is Zack Greinke, who is 1-9 with a 5.44 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP over 92.2 innings pitched this season.
Trends
Detroit is 5-1 in their last 6 Thursday games and 1-4 in Lorenzen’s last five starts with four days of rest. The over is 4-0-1 in Lorenzen’s last five starts with four days of rest and the over is 5-1 in Detroit’s last 6 game four’s of a series. The under is 4-1 in Kansas City’s last 5 games against a right handed starting pitcher.
Pick
Detroit comes into this game barely holding onto hope in the race for the AL Central and they cannot afford to lose this game, while Kansas City has one of the worst records in baseball. Detroit has won two of the first three games in this series and they will look for the series win here. Detroit is starting Michael Lorenzen, who has allowed no earned runs over his last two starts (11.2 IP). Kansas City hasn’t officially announced a starting pitcher, but it may be Zack Greinke, who has allowed 15 earned runs over his last three starts. I like the Tigers to get the win here.
AUTHOR: David Racey
