{"id":15438,"date":"2011-05-16T08:22:35","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T13:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15438"},"modified":"2011-05-16T08:22:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-16T13:22:35","slug":"mlb-handicapping-streaking-tigers-host-blue-jays-mlb-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-handicapping-streaking-tigers-host-blue-jays-mlb-predictions-15438\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Handicapping: Streaking Tigers Host Blue Jays MLB Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Tigers are the hottest team in baseball entering Monday\u2019s series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays at Comerica Park<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays at Detroit Tigers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Detroit Tigers SP Max Scherzer aims to start the season 7-0 tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto finished off a three-game road sweep of Minnesota with an 11-3 victory Sunday and was led by the outstanding offensive play of outfielder Jose Bautista.\u00a0 He hit a career-high tying three home runs yesterday and is proving last year\u2019s 54 round trippers was no fluke.\u00a0 \u201cI guess this is one of the hottest streaks I\u2019ve ever had in my life,\u201d Bautista commented.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully I can keep this going for awhile.\u201d\u00a0 The Blue Jays will need it to continue based on their early season troubles against the Tigers, dropping three of four at home by hitting just .229 and scoring 14 runs.\u00a0 Second baseman Aaron Hill hopes to join in on the fun, going 2-for-4 in Sunday\u2019s victory, as he\u2019s yet to homer in 92 at-bats this season.\u00a0 Toronto is 15-7 in night games this season.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays starting pitcher Kyle Drabek is an even 2-2 with a 4.81 ERA in eight starts this season, as he\u2019s managed to issue 28 walks and register 33 strikeouts in 43 innings of work.\u00a0 The right-hander comes in on a two-game losing streak, allowing 12 runs and 21 hits over just 13 frames.\u00a0 Drabek will be making his sixth road start of the year, compiling a 1-2 record and 4.91 ERA, as opponents are hitting .300 against him.\u00a0 Monday night will mark his first career start versus the Tigers.<\/p>\n

Detroit has posted a dominating 113-66 record at Comerica Park since the start of the 2009 season, ranking second-best among American League teams over that span.\u00a0 The Tigers pitching staff has been a major reason for that particular success, including this season by compiling a 2.69 ERA in its last 13 home games.\u00a0 Offensively, catcher Victor Martinez enters with a 13-game hitting streak, while going 14 for 28 and knocking in 14 runs during the club\u2019s season-high seven-game winning streak.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re not worried about winning streaks or anything like that,\u201d said catcher Alex Avila.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s just trying to play a consistent baseball game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tigers starting pitcher Max Scherzer is a perfect 6-0 with a 3.20 ERA heading into his ninth start of the season, as the club has proven victorious in seven of his outings.\u00a0 The right-hander will be facing the Blue Jays for a second consecutive game, posting a 10-5 road win on May 9, giving up two runs and five hits over five frames.\u00a0 Scherzer has been downright dominating at Comerica Park, entering with a perfect 3-0 mark and 0.96 ERA, as he\u2019s yet to allow a home run at home in 28 innings.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Tigers due to their 5-0 mark in Scherzer\u2019s last five home games, while the Blue Jays are 1-4 in the last five meetings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Tigers are the hottest team in baseball entering Monday\u2019s series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays at Comerica Park Toronto Blue Jays at Detroit Tigers Toronto finished off a three-game road sweep of Minnesota with an 11-3 victory Sunday and was led by the outstanding offensive play of outfielder Jose Bautista.\u00a0 He hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2126,48,2401,1603,100,223,1030],"class_list":["post-15438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-comerica-park","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-jose-bautista","tag-kyle-drabek","tag-max-scherzer","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-victor-martinez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15439,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15438\/revisions\/15439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}