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Minnesota will be happy to leave Toronto and AL East opponents, dropping to 9-15 against the division with a 8-1 loss to the Blue Jays last night.\u00a0 \u201cWe know they are a home run hitting team and you have to make pitches,\u201d manager Ron Gardenhire said.\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t make very many of them tonight.\u201d\u00a0 The Twins continue their road trip and hope to improve upon its 19-10 divisional record (+440) against the Tigers.\u00a0 First baseman Justin Morneau hopes to return to the lineup after sitting out with a mild concussion due to getting kneed in the head on Wednesday night.\u00a0 \u201cHe wasn\u2019t feeling very good. We\u2019ll see how he does today,\u201d Gardenhire said.\u00a0 The club has seen its games post a 5-1 O\/U mark this month and 32-22 O\/U the last three years in July.<\/p>\n
Twins starting pitcher Francisco Liriano is an even 6-6 with a 3.32 ERA in 16 starts this season, managing to strike out 116 batters and walk just 28 in 105.2 innings.\u00a0 The hard-throwing left-hander is 3-3 with a 3.81 ERA in eight road starts, surrendering both of his home runs away from Target Field.\u00a0 Since posting a 3-0 record and 0.93 ERA in the opening month of the season, Liriano struggled to find a rhythm the following two months.\u00a0 He posted a 2-3 record and 5.15 ERA in May and a 1-3 mark and 3.82 ERA in June.\u00a0 In his first start this month, he allowed a single run and four hits while striking out 10 in seven frames.\u00a0 In 13 previous appearances (nine starts) versus the Tigers, he stands at 4-2 with a 4.41 ERA.<\/p>\n
Detroit continues to bury teams on its home turf, winning five of six on its current homestand to move to an AL-best 30-12 at Comerica Park (+1,590).\u00a0 The team\u2019s focus is definitely placed on this weekend\u2019s important series before the All-Star break.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to Friday,\u201d said first baseman Miguel Cabrera.\u00a0 The All-Star slugger is batting .467 with 13 RBIs in his last 12 games.\u00a0 The bullpen has also been relied heavily upon this season, posting a 18-7 record and 3.29 ERA.\u00a0 The relievers are second in the AL in victories and fourth in earned run average.\u00a0 Detroit has been a great team against southpaws over the years and this season is no different.\u00a0 The team is 15-9 against left-handed starters in 2010 (+630) and 70-51 over the last three years (+1,140).<\/p>\n
Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander is 10-5 with a 3.85 ERA in 17 starts this season, including picking up five victories in his last six outings.\u00a0 He has compiled a solid 5-2 record and 2.63 ERA in eight home starts, allowing opposing batters to hit for a combined .201 average.\u00a0 In 24 career outings in July, the right-hander is 14-7 with a 3.49 ERA.\u00a0 Verlander tallied a 6-1 home win in his last start against the Seattle Mariners, giving up just a single run and seven hits while striking out 10 in seven innings of work.\u00a0 He gets set to make his 16th career start against the Twins, posting a 5-7 mark and 4.03 ERA, which includes a 2-0 home defeat on April 27 (5.2IP\/0ER).<\/p>\n
Bettors will certainly note that the visiting team in this contest sits at 7-13 as a road underdog of +100 to +125 this season (-500) and are 0-4 in Liriano\u2019s last four starts as an underdog of +110 to +150.\u00a0 On the other side, the home team has been a -125 to -150 favorite just four times this season (2-2, -70), but have posted a 7-1 record in Verlander\u2019s last eight divisional starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tigers send their ace to the mound in the opening game of a crucial AL Central series at Comerica Park. Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers Minnesota will be happy to leave Toronto and AL East opponents, dropping to 9-15 against the division with a 8-1 loss to the Blue Jays last night.\u00a0 \u201cWe know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2126,48,919,284,104,2010,240],"class_list":["post-5342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-comerica-park","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-francisco-liriano","tag-justin-morneau","tag-justin-verlander","tag-miguel-cabrera","tag-minnesota-twins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342","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=5342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5343,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342\/revisions\/5343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}