The Detroit Tigers do not have to spend much time dwelling about their prime-time loss against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.
On Monday, the Tigers will welcome a new day, a new opponent and a new city.
Detroit will open a four-game series at the Minnesota Twins on Monday night in Minneapolis. It will be a chance for the Tigers to improve on the road, where they are 2-4 to start the season.
Meanwhile, the Twins are eager to snap out of an early-season slump. They are 1-2 in each of their first three series and are coming off a 4-1 home loss in 10 innings to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon.
It marked the fourth time in nine games this season that the Twins have scored only one run.
Manager Derek Shelton is well aware of his team’s struggles at the plate. He said the season is young and the group has time to find its rhythm.
“We’re a little in between right now, and I think that’s showing,” Shelton said. “I think that’s why we’re not getting a lot of hard contact. … We need to make some hard contact.
“If I had a solution for it, it would be a lot easier. But right now, we’re just … in a little bit of a funk. We need to figure it out.”
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (0-1, 4.82 ERA) will make his third start of the season. He is seeking his first win after matching a career high with 13 victories a season ago.
In his most recent start, Ryan surrendered five runs on nine hits over four innings in a 13-9 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. He did not pitch at his typical velocity on a cold, wet day in which he struggled to get his footing on the mound.
“The ‘velo’ being down, I’m going to contribute that a little bit to the fact that it was 40 degrees and rainy,” Shelton said.
The forecast for Monday’s game calls for another cold day, with temperatures in the 30s.
This will be Ryan’s 10th career start against Detroit. In his first nine appearances, he is 4-2 with a 3.42 ERA and has struck out 71 in 52 2/3 innings.
The Tigers will counter with right-hander Casey Mize (0-0, 1.50 ERA). He will look to build on an impressive season debut in which he limited the Arizona Diamondbacks to one run on four hits in six innings on Tuesday. He walked two and struck out nine in Detroit’s 7-5 loss.
“On a personal level, it was a pretty good start,” Mize said. “It’s just unfortunate we didn’t win the game.”
Mize is 4-4 with a 4.95 ERA in 11 career starts against the Twins. He faced them four times in 2025, going 3-1 with a 4.74 ERA.
The Twins and Tigers played each other 13 times last season. Detroit won the season series 8-5 and outscored Minnesota 59-54.
–Field Level Media
