Probable Pitchers:
Game 1: Kyle Davies, RHP (0-0, 4.50) Vs. Rick Porcello, RHP (1-0, 3.60)
Royals: Davies made his 2010 debut against the Red Sox last Friday night and did well enough -- one bad inning among his six. Three hits were turned into three runs, thanks mainly to a monster home run by J.D. Drew. Facing a club that likes to work the count, Davies did a good job of harnessing what for him has been on-and-off command, particularly of his fastball. He walked just one and 55 of his 89 pitches were strikes. There's no doubt that Davies has great stuff but he's a right-hander who has just never found consistent success. Davies considers his changeup his second-best pitch and he feels it gives him a lot of success against left-handed hitters. Last year, for example, he held lefties to a .239 average versus .284 by righties. The Tigers' big guns, though, are right-handed and Miguel Cabrera has hit .308 with three home runs and Magglio Ordonez .364 against him.
Tigers: Porcello doesn't look rattled very often, so the fact that Cleveland hitters brought that out of him in the Tigers' home opener last Friday should say something about the emotions that built up inside of him. He has a much better chance of settling down for the end of the Tigers homestand, facing a Royals squad that actually roughed him up a little bit last year with 10 earned runs on 15 hits allowed over 18 innings.
Game 2: Jeremy Bonderman, RHP (1-0, 1.80) Vs. Felix Hernandez, RHP (0-0, 3.29)
Tigers: Bonderman marked his return to the Tigers rotation last Saturday with five innings of one-hit, one-hit, one-run ball. He used his combination of his trademark slider and his newly-developed splitter to near-perfection, not to mention the kind of swings and misses he couldn't produce as often the past couple years while he tried to deal with decreased velocity. He'll try to repeat his success in his home state of Washington against a Mariners squad that has struggled offensively early on.
Mariners: Two starts into the season, the ace right-hander is still looking for his first win and he might have to pitch a shutout to get it. Though both of his outings so far, against the Athletics and Rangers on the road, have been quality starts, King Felix has yet to celebrate after a game the way he did at the end of last season, when he reeled off 15 wins in his final 17 decisions. The only glaring statistic on Hernandez's ledger so far is the walk-strikeout ratio. Through 13 2/3 innings, he has issued seven free passes and struck out nine.
@ Safeco Field
Game 3: TBA Vs. Ian Snell, RHP (0-1, 5.00)
Game 4: TBA Vs. Ryan Rowland-Smith, LHP (0-1, 5.25)
