Following a two-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins look to expand their American League Central lead further on Thursday against the Detroit Tigers.
Detroit Tigers vs. Minnesota Twins (-200, 8)
Twins starter Sonny Gray enters having allowed just one home run in 72 innings this season, the fewest of any pitcher with at least 35 innings logged this season, with having allowed three runs or fewer in all 13 of his starts this season.
As a whole, Gray has a 2.25 ERA with 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings and fielding independent of 2.43, which is the best mark among qualifying American League pitchers. Gray’s ERA drops to 1.71 at home with two runs or fewer allowed in six of his seven starts at home this season.
Gray gets to face a Tigers offense that does not have a single player with more than eight home runs this season and is last among the 30 MLB team in runs per game on the road with just under 3.2 per game and a league-worst .209 road batting average.
Behind Gray is an offense that is just 24th in the league in batting average and 19th in the league in runs per game and will be without two of their top hitters on Thursday in Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco, who are both on the injured list.
The Tigers turn to starter Matthew Boyd to keep the bats in check, who has done his best work on the road, posting a 2.93 ERA with an opponents batting average of .184 on the road while opponents hit .301 off of him at home and his ERA balloons to 8.46 at home.
Both starters are supported by solid bullpens with the Twins entering Wednesday seventh in the league in bullpen ERA while the Tigers are 15th in this category.
With the Twins having been held to three runs or fewer in seven of their last 11 games and the Tigers eight of their past 11 games prior to Wednesday’s doubleheader, it will be a struggle for either team to generate runs on Thursday.
The Play: Tigers vs. Twins Under 8
