Detroit Tigers (24-13) vs Boston Red Sox (26-12)
Fenway Park @ 12:35pm EST & 7:05PM EST
FSND / AM 1270

Mike Maroth (3-0, 4.69) vs Julian Tavarez (1-4, 6.60)

The Tigers have a doubleheader in Boston today due to the rain-out of last night’s game. It does look like the weather will cooperate a bit more today though the clouds will stay out but no rain so Maroth will get the chance to take the mound.

Mike Maroth will take the mound for his 8th start still unbeaten. Even though his own record is 3-0 the Tigers are undefeated in all games that were started by Maroth thus far. Hopefully that will continue and it is quite possible with Tavarez out there for Boston.

Julian Tavarez’s best start this year came on May 5th against the Twins where he gave up 2 runs over 6 innings of work. Unfortunatly for Tavarez he was facing Johan Santana so he ended up with the loss. Tavarez faced only two Tigers in 2006 where he gave up a 3-run home run to Magglio Ordonez and struck out Carlos Guillen. Turns out that was Magglio’s only hit in 7 plate appearances though some other Tigers have hit him well:

- Ivan Rodriguez, who started coming out of a bit of a May slump in Tuesday’s game, has hit 7-for-15 with 2 doubles.
- Gary Sheffield is hitting .333 with 2 doubles and 4 walks
- Sean Casey has hit .353 through 17 AB’s with 2 doubles and three walks.

[UPDATE] – Billfer was all over this news this morning, but Zach Miner will be starting in place of the sick Mike Maroth. John Lowe @ Free Press has more on this as well.

This will make it 3 starts in the past couple days that were not started by Tiger regulars. This worries me with all the changes but it is probobly just due to being spoiled with a solid rotation through 2006.

Zach Miner started the year off in Toledo very rough but has pulled it together in the last two starts allowing zero earned runs. He’ll need to bring that game to Fenway today.

Chad Durbin (3-1, 5.08) vs Curt Schilling (4-1, 3.63)

The second matchup of the day will see Chad Durbin who has been on-again/off-again throughout this year though lately he has been very much on-again. His last two starts saw him go 13.2 innings allowing 13 hits and 4 earned runs and picking up back-to-back wins. Hopefully this means that he’s settled down a bit and will show a bit of consistency which the Tigers very will might need as they face Schilling.

Curt Schilling saw Detroit twice in 2006 ending with a 0-0 record and 2.77 ERA, walking none while striking out 12. He’s pretty consistantly shut down Tiger batters including the newest Tiger Gary Sheffield who has faced Curt 78 times batting .212/.321/.364, walking 11 times to 14 strikeouts. No other Tiger has seen him nearly as much but their records are all pretty lackluster.