Wednesday night baseball and we will see the Detroit Tigers take on the Texas Rangers in the rubber match of their 3 game series. The game is scheduled for an 8:05 pm start time and it will be televised live on ESPN. Currently the odds have the Rangers favored at -153, while the Tigers are dogs of +144. The total for the game is at 10 runs.
Free Analysis: The Tigers, who won 8-2 on Monday, are trying to avoid dropping a second straight series after winning their previous four. Detroit missed a chance to reach .500 on Tuesday for the first time since it was 18-18 on May 15. Prince Fielder had two hits including a home run and four RBI’s and Austin Jackson and Alex Avilla each had hits as the Tigers scored five runs on five hits in the 7-5 loss on Tuesday. Prince Fielder has a homer among three hits and has driven in five in the first two games in this series. The first baseman is hitting .375 with three homers, 17 RBIs and a 1.077 OPS over his last 19 road games, but he is also just 5 for 36 with 1 HR in his career vs Roy Oswalt. Cabrera, meanwhile, was finally held in check in Tuesday's loss, going 0 for 3 and being hit by a pitch. He's a career .372 regular-season hitter against the Rangers with 23 RBIs in 20 games in Arlington, but just 3-15 with O RBI's in his career off of Oswalt.Tonight Detroit starts Doug Fister who has solid numbers everywhere except with his wins and losses. Doug Fister is just 1-4 on the year, but with a 2.72 ERA while on the road he is 0-3 with a 3.23 ERA in five starts - all losses for Detroit. Tonight he will face the Rangers for the first time since winning Game 3 of last year's ALCS by allowing two runs over 7 1-3 innings in a 5-2 home victory. He's 2-3 with a 4.38 ERA in six regular-season starts against them, though he was hit hard in his lone outing in Arlington. The Texas Rangers bounced back from their loss at home on Monday thanks in part to Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton, who each hit home runs, while Michael Young had two hits as the Rangers scored seven runs on 10 hits in all. Any discussion of Texas offensively, of course, begins with Josh Hamilton. The slugger, who leads the majors in RBIs (67) and slugging percentage (.656), appears to be finding his way out of a 4-for-24 slump entering this series. Hamilton went deep Monday and Tuesday after an 11-game drought, and he's 8 for 25 with four homers and eight RBIs in six games against Detroit this year, but he is just 2 for 10 in the regular season against Fister, while Nelson Cruz (7 for 14), David Murphy (6 for 16) and Adrian Beltre (4 for 11) have all fared better. Beltre is 14 for 25 during a seven-game hitting streak, going 4 for 8 in this series. Texas signed Roy Oswalt (1-0, 1.35 ERA) to a minor-league deal May 29 and he made his debut Friday a victorious one, giving up one run with six strikeouts over 6 2-3 innings in a 4-1 home win over Colorado. He has never faced the Tigers. Texas is 9-2 in their last 11 games overall and 36-16 in their last 52 home games, while Detroit is 4-1 in their last five games as an underdog, 8-3 in their last 11 games against a right handed starter, and 0-5 in Fister’s last five road starts.
Free Pick: We're going to look to the Under in this one. Doug Fister is 0-3 on the road this year, but will a solid 3.23 ERA. His road starts have not been that hight scoring as just 6.2 rpg were scored in those games. Doug has allowed 3 ER's or less in 7 of his 8 starts this year and in his 2 starts vs Texas (both LY) as a member of the Tigers he allowed just 2 ER's in each. Let's also note that Doug has a 1.83 ERA in his 4 night starts and just 5.33 rpg have been scored in those games. Roy Oswalt has just 1 start on the year and it was a good one, as he allowed just 1 ER in 6.2 innings of work vs Colorado. Roy has never faced Detroit, but he does have a solid 3.63 career ERA the AL. Texas does average 5.51 rpg at home, but they struggle vs lefties in this park, hitting just .249 and scoring 4.07 rp/9 off of them, plus Detroit has allowed 4 runs or less in 9 of their last 10 games. Detroit's offense has picked up some, but just 4 players on this roster have seen him and they are a combined 10-61 with 1 HR and 5 RBI's off of him. Fielder has seen him the most and he has hit just .139 in 36 AB's with 1 HR off of him. I expect piching to have a good showing tonight as this game fails to put more than 8 runs on the board.
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