Detroit Tigers @ Kansas City Royals

[Liqourish]

DETROIT TIGERS @ KANSAS CITY ROYALS

@ Kauffman Stadium



Tuesday, September 8 Kauffman Stadium | 8:10 PM ET

Rick Porcello, RHP (12-8, 4.18) Tigers (75-61)
Bruce Chen, LHP (1-6, 5.24) Royals (52-85)

Scouting Report:

Tigers: Porcello became just the second Major League pitcher since 1988 to win a dozen games in a season before his 21st birthday, joining Felix Hernandez thanks to a solid performance on Wednesday against the Indians. He held Cleveland to two runs over seven-plus innings in a remarkably efficient performance. Porcello has used his four-seam fastball well to set up his sinker as a great out pitch over his past few starts, a trend that should continue in Kansas City.

Royals: Chen, a left-hander trying to make an impression in a comeback year from Tommy John surgery, gets another shot as a replacement for Brian Bannister. The Royals are skipping Bannister this time as he gets a medical evaluation for shoulder fatigue when stopped him after 1 1/3 innings last Wednesday at Oakland. Chen saved the day in that game, pitching four solid innings to give the other relievers a needed rest. Chen has made eight starts, the last Aug. 6 in an 8-6 win over the Mariners -- his first big league victory in almost four years.

Wednesday, September 9 Kauffman Stadium | 8:10 PM ET

Justin Verlander, RHP (16-7, 3.29) Tigers (75-61)
Robinson Tejeda, RHP (1-1, 3.61) Royals (52-85)

Scouting Report:

Tigers: Verlander continued to make his case to be the American League Cy Young Award winner on Friday, when he overcame an intense pitchers' duel with the Rays' Jeff Niemann and notched his 16th win, which was tied for the AL lead at the time. Verlander gave up a run in the second inning, but he retired 10 of his next 11 batters and ended up giving up just that one run on four hits and a walk while striking out seven in eight innings. The 26-year-old did, however, need 126 pitches (85 strikes) to get through his outing. Verlander has thrown at least 100 pitches in 24 of his 29 outings this year, with 14 of those being for 115-plus. Verlander, who has a 2.64 ERA since April 27, is 9-1 with a 2.38 in 13 career starts against the Royals.

Royals: Tejeda, making a spot start for Gil Meche, did a superb job last Friday night and he gets another chance with Meche being skipped again. Tejeda held the Angels scoreless on one hit for 5 1/3 innings but got no decision as the bullpen lost his 1-0 lead. Tejeda struck out six and walked just two, the last two batters before he left the game. Tejeda now has a string of 13 straight scoreless innings, in which he's given up only two hits. Although he's no certainty to finish the season in the rotation, his recent performances give him a chance to return to starting, which he did most often with Philadelphia and Texas.

Thursday, September 10 Kauffman Stadium | 2:10 PM ET

Jarrod Washburn, LHP (9-8, 3.55) Tigers (75-61)
To be announced Royals (52-85)

Scouting Report:

Tigers: Washburn's left knee was too sore for him to make his previous scheduled start, against the Rays last Saturday, so he'll now go on nine days' rest against the Royals. Washburn, who said he's been told there's cartilage damage and received a pain-killing shot on the knee last Wednesday, was also skipped once with the Mariners earlier this year. Since coming over in the trade, the 35-year-old is 1-2 with a 6.81 ERA in six starts. In his last outing, against the Rays on Aug. 31, the lefty gave up eight runs in 5 2/3 innings. Washburn is 8-6 with a 2.94 ERA in 19 career games (18 starts) against the Royals.

[ajaX82]

keep taking care of buisness. After this and the next series, we get pretty much all Minni and CHW. Simply put, gotta keep beating the teams you should to make the playoffs

[Liqourish]

This should be a good series for us, especially since the Royals pulled Greinke from the rotation for this series. We just gotta get good outings from our starters and have our offense show up.

We really need every game before we face Sox and Twins.

[ElectricMayhem]

It seems like the Royals usually play us better than they usually are. Still, I'd hope we win the series. It's not like they're coming at us with Bret Saberhagan and Bo Jackson.

[tmorgan]

Losing the Porcello vs. Chen game sucked, but...

As has happened so often this year, the Twins didn't capitalize. It's just as good as a win if they are going to lose, too.

If the Twins or the ChiSox don't finish well, we could be the only team in the division with a winning record. That's pretty damn pathetic.

[Liqourish]

I never like losing, especially when we have a chance to gain ground. But if we're going to lose, I'm glad we lost when Minny and Chicago lost as well.

Porcello didn't pitch great, but I think the defense behind him didn't help either. Seay and Perry also struggled, as did Bonderman. It just seems like alot of little things lost us the game. Little things we can improve on and won't nessecarily hinder us down the stretch.

We need Verlander to do well to save this series.

[ajaX82]

Justin* definitely needs to do work tonight. Glad to see us not lose ground, but damn if we couldnt have gained some

[TSE]

Well we got beat today but weren't helped by terrible mistakes by Leyland again, especially in the 9th. Letting Avila swing on a 3-1 pitch is a classic baseball mistake when all we need is for him to get on base. And pinch-hitting Thames for Santiago is just dumb considering Thames is not a good hitter in that situation when all we need is for him to get on base with ANY type of hit, thus the value of his power hitting is nullified for that atbat and he becomes a terrible person to be batting in that position.

Get a guy on base first and THEN put Thames if you want him to hit, that way you have at least SOME chance to get the bonus value of his power hitting. We had multiple other players on the bench with a better OBP to at least give us some respectable shot of bringing the tying run to the plate. C'mon Leyland wake up!

[ajaX82]

aargh

three double plays today, and losing. only good thing is Minni losing today

[TSE]

Yeah Washburn is susceptible to giving up a lot of contact, so random variance of things will always put him at a high level of risk to give up strings of hits. And when you throw in a walk every once in a while then you are really prone to disaster. He's not the ideal type of pitcher to have imo. I think the Mariners made a smart move to dump him in exchange for the decent prospect.

[Liqourish]

Washburn is looking bad. I'd rather have Porcello on the mound 9 times out of 10.

We got swept in the series which sucks, but luckily, we really didn't lose ground in the Central.

[ajaX82]

^ Still i really dont like getting swept. It does not fill one with faith

[tmorgan]

Yeah Washburn is susceptible to giving up a lot of contact, so random variance of things will always put him at a high level of risk to give up strings of hits. And when you throw in a walk every once in a while then you are really prone to disaster. He's not the ideal type of pitcher to have imo. I think the Mariners made a smart move to dump him in exchange for the decent prospect.

Except it wasn't a decent prospect -- it was a low minors RELIEF PITCHER.

You do know that 99% of all real pitching prospects are starters in the minors, right?

That said, Washburn has sucked major ass, so it was a bad trade even if we'd given up absolutely nothing.