Detroit Tigers (12-11) vs Minnesota Twins (14-10)
Comerica Park @ 1:05pm EST
FSN-HD / AM 1270 / FM 97.1

Mike Maroth (2-0, 5.06 ERA) vs Johan Santana (3-2, 3.44 ERA)

Tigers will try to keep from getting swept after an embarrasing outing yesterday. They will have quite a fight on thier hand as they will be running up against one of the best in Johan Santana. Johan hasn’t been off to the greatest start for him but it has been enough for three wins. There are some Tigers who have had success, in particular the meat and potatoes of the lineup thus far:

• Placido Polanco - .571/.571/.714 in 7 AB’s
• Gary Sheffield - .385/.429/.462 in 13 AB’s
• Magglio Ordonez - .394/.405/.818 in 33 AB’s

Santana is a lefty and with Rodriguez out with a toe injury it will be interesting to see what Leyland decides to do. Granderson has yet to get on base against Santana in 7 plate appearances so hopefully Pudge will be able to rejoin the team today.

Mike Maroth will be on the mound for the Tigers and he historically hasn’t been at his best against the Twins with a lifetime 4.73 ERA against them. He has been off to a bit of a slow start but has been an effective pitcher for the team. He will need to work on his efficiency as many starts have seen him have high pitch counts through only a few innings. Case in point his last start against the Angels that saw him pitch 4.2 innings with a pitch count of 105 though it was not a bad outing despite the 5 walks.

The Tigers will need bring themselves together and play together as they can do to take the win today because, as they showed yesterday, the Twins won’t give up an easy out.