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After finishing 4-2 on their first home stand of the season, Detroit returns to the road for their longest trip of the year, playing 11 games in 11 days against three teams from the American League West, starting in Seattle. The Tigers (6-3, +1.3 units) have been the comeback kids thus far with five of their wins coming after trailing. Seattle is a -180 series favorite at Sportsbook.com.
Another comeback story is pitcher Jeremy Bonderman. The right-hander gave up one hit and one run while striking out five in five innings in a 4-2 win over Cleveland last Saturday. That was Bonderman's first victory in nearly two years, bouncing back from surgery that broke up a blood clot in his throwing shoulder.
"It was fun to just get back on the mound, compete and be who I am and not worry about my arm hurting," Bonderman said. "It's been a long journey back, but I'm hoping I got 35 more starts in and hopefully we can do something special."
The 27-year old is making the change from a hard-thrower to pitcher. "That was really Jeremy Bonderman the pitcher," Leyland said of his first start in 2010, "not Jeremy Bonderman the 95-96-mph fastball, hard slider. He pitched, and that's the adjustment that he's going to have to make. We're tickled to death today. That's progress, and that's something you have to build on."
His mound opponent for first game is 100 percent healthy and one of the best pitchers in baseball, Felix Hernandez. Seattle's ace right-hander starts the season with 3.29 ERA, but no-decisions, providing two quality starts on the road, both Mariners wins. This makes it Hernandez first time to take the mound at Safeco Field and he and Mariners' teammates are 27-9 the last two years he's been the starter.
Sportsbook.com has Seattle as -174 money line favorites in the first contest of the series with total Ov7. King Felix is 27-8 when the total is 7 to 8.5 (Mariners Record) and 10-1 OVER as a home favorite of -175 to -200. Detroit is 3-9 in Game 1 of a series dating back to last season and is 7-1 in Bonderman's previous eight road starts.
Game 1 Edge: Seattle
Seattle (4-6, -2 units) has begun the season very slow with the bats, averaging 2.8 runs per game, with sordid team batting average of .231. They have shown a few signs of starting to work their way out of it with nine or more hits in four of last five games. The Mariners are the only team in baseball that has yet to score more than five runs in single game and they might still be searching facing the Tigers ace Jason Verlander.
The 6'5 right-hander has dialed up the fastball into the upper-90's, however has ERA of 9.00 because he's lacked command of secondary pitches to retire hitters thus far. He's making mistakes that are getting hit or batters are sitting dead-red in their second or third time at bat, not fearing Verlander can throw anything else over the plate. With Seattle still searching at the dish, Detroit's top pitcher could go to 44-18 (Tigers Record) against losing teams.
Seattle counters with Ryan Rowland-Smith. The Aussie has a sound delivery with a tailing fastball, a big overhand curveball that he likes to use early in counts to go along with first-rate changeup. Rowland-Smith is known for throwing strikes, but is not a strike-out pitcher. If the lefty is taking his turn in the rotation in Game 2, Seattle has four-game winning streak.
Game 2 Edge: Detroit
The series finale is a wild card contest, at least as far as the pitching is concerned. The Tigers go with Max Scherzer, who throws 95 MPH fastball and has devastating sweeping slider when he's on. Has tendency to get lazy with mechanics, which adds up pitch count unnecessarily or has one faulty inning that costs him. One aspect in his favor is Detroit is 36-18 vs. teams whose hitters strike out seven or more times a game coming into the series.
Ian Snell is making his third start of the year and comes in with ERA of 5. Snell would be described as a "slinger" with his three-quarters delivery style and follow thru. His fastball runs and sinks and he possesses a hard slider, but isn't known as great listener and too easily loses command of the strike zone. Though a very good athlete, at 5'11 lacks the leverage to get extra tilt on his pitches when he tires. Snell is 1-1 with a 2.13 ERA in two career starts against the Tigers and Seattle begins the series having won 19 of last 26 at home.
Game 3 Edge: Detroit
The first two games have starting pitchers from each team that can dominate, which sets up a split. The starting pitching matchup for Game 3 is a push, however the Tigers bullpen and offense has been better thus far, making them the series play in the second weekend of baseball action.
Sportsbook.com series odds: Detroit +140 , Seattle-180
