H1Man
04-25-2007, 08:04 PM
Detroit (11-9) at Chicago (11-8), 8:11 p.m. ET
After dropping two of three to the White Sox over the weekend and then losing a heartbreaker in Anaheim on Tuesday, the Tigers are looking forward to showing Chicago who the defending American League champions are.
"We lost two at our park over the weekend," said first baseman Sean Casey, "We really want to go in and take two back from them."
In a division as strong as the American League Central, it's important to win as many as you can against your rivals.
"It's a tough division," Casey said. "Every game is tough, but you want to make some kind of statement.
As for manager Jim Leyland, it's not about statements, it's just about playing the games as they come.
"It's where we're going next," he said, "That's all there is to it. It's the schedule."
And a bizarre, somewhat annoying schedule to Leyland, who decided to leave Wednesday night's starter, Chad Durbin, back in Detroit, rather than having him fly out to California for two days. Durbin will join the team in Chicago.
"No reason to have him make a trip like this for two days," Leyland said.
It might be just a game on the schedule, but the Tigers want their starter to be rested and at his best.
Pitching matchup
DET: RHP Chad Durbin (0-1, 10.54 ERA)
Durbin had his best start of the season in his previous outing, lowering his ERA by almost two runs on Friday against the White Sox, but he still gave up four earned runs in five-plus innings. Durbin threw too many hittable pitches -- such as home runs to Tadahito Iguchi and Juan Uribe -- but not as many as he had thrown in his first two outings. Durbin doesn't have much margin for error, his stuff isn't good enough to simply overpower hitters, and against a powerful lineup such as Chicago's that can be a problem.
CWS: LHP John Danks (0-2, 5.06 ERA)
The 22-year-old Danks will make his fourth start, and he surely hopes he'll have just a bit more luck in this outing than he did in his previous one. Facing the Tigers on Friday, he pitched a solid game, and if he'd gotten steadier defense behind him, he might have picked up his first win. Still, Danks has shown plenty of promise, and he'll stay in the rotation if he continues to pitch as he did against Detroit.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070424&content_id=1927274&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det
After dropping two of three to the White Sox over the weekend and then losing a heartbreaker in Anaheim on Tuesday, the Tigers are looking forward to showing Chicago who the defending American League champions are.
"We lost two at our park over the weekend," said first baseman Sean Casey, "We really want to go in and take two back from them."
In a division as strong as the American League Central, it's important to win as many as you can against your rivals.
"It's a tough division," Casey said. "Every game is tough, but you want to make some kind of statement.
As for manager Jim Leyland, it's not about statements, it's just about playing the games as they come.
"It's where we're going next," he said, "That's all there is to it. It's the schedule."
And a bizarre, somewhat annoying schedule to Leyland, who decided to leave Wednesday night's starter, Chad Durbin, back in Detroit, rather than having him fly out to California for two days. Durbin will join the team in Chicago.
"No reason to have him make a trip like this for two days," Leyland said.
It might be just a game on the schedule, but the Tigers want their starter to be rested and at his best.
Pitching matchup
DET: RHP Chad Durbin (0-1, 10.54 ERA)
Durbin had his best start of the season in his previous outing, lowering his ERA by almost two runs on Friday against the White Sox, but he still gave up four earned runs in five-plus innings. Durbin threw too many hittable pitches -- such as home runs to Tadahito Iguchi and Juan Uribe -- but not as many as he had thrown in his first two outings. Durbin doesn't have much margin for error, his stuff isn't good enough to simply overpower hitters, and against a powerful lineup such as Chicago's that can be a problem.
CWS: LHP John Danks (0-2, 5.06 ERA)
The 22-year-old Danks will make his fourth start, and he surely hopes he'll have just a bit more luck in this outing than he did in his previous one. Facing the Tigers on Friday, he pitched a solid game, and if he'd gotten steadier defense behind him, he might have picked up his first win. Still, Danks has shown plenty of promise, and he'll stay in the rotation if he continues to pitch as he did against Detroit.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070424&content_id=1927274&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det