As the Detroit Tigers remain hot, the Cleveland Guardians continue to scuffle.
Winners in 11 of their past 14 games, the visiting Tigers will try to hand the American League Central-leading Guardians their season-high fourth consecutive loss on Tuesday night.
The current surge has the Tigers within a game of .500 and brimming with confidence after opening this four-game set on Monday with an 8-2 rout of the Guardians, who have lost seven of nine and are 8-14 since June 26.
Detroit rookie Justyn-Henry Malloy clubbed a two-run homer on Monday. Matt Vierling and Mark Canha each had three hits, and Tarik Skubal overcame allowing a career-high 10 hits to surrender just one run over seven innings.
“Came out swinging, came out scoring,” Tigers catcher Jake Rogers, who circled the bases on what was ruled an RBI triple and one-base error Monday, told Bally Sports.
“Pretty proud of us. … (Success is) catching up with us,” he added.
Detroit has averaged 5.8 runs and clubbed 22 home runs in the past 14 games. Malloy, meanwhile, hit his first grand slam on Sunday during the Tigers’ 5-4 loss at Toronto. He has seven homers in 36 games this season for a club that still faces an uphill climb toward playoff contention.
The Tigers, though, are 5-3 against the Guardians following a third consecutive win in the season series.
“Those are your division rivals. You want to beat them, move up,” Malloy said of the Guardians and other Central foes.
Cleveland’s recent rut has been mostly due to an offense that is batting .225 and averaging 3.3 runs over the past 22 contests. The Guardians have totaled three runs during their current three-game skid — which has come entirely at home, where they are 31-14.
All-Star Steven Kwan was batting .363 on July 9 but is 7-for-35 (.200) with one extra-base hit and no RBIs in his nine games since.
“You know the bats are going to come back, it’s just part of baseball,” Guardians pitcher Ben Lively told the club’s official website.
Cleveland aims to get back on track while facing what is likely to be a bullpen day for Detroit on Tuesday. The Tigers, whose rotation has been hit with injuries of late, had not named a starter for the matchup as of late Monday night.
Meanwhile, Cleveland’s Xzavion Curry (0-2, 5.19 ERA) is slated to make his first start since being recalled from Triple-A Columbus on July 12. The right-hander, who threw 1 1/3 innings of relief that same day, is 0-1 with a 5.68 ERA in three major league starts this season.
Curry has a 3.27 ERA without a decision in two career starts against the Tigers, in 2022 and 2023.
Detroit All-Star Riley Greene had his eight-game hitting streak come to an end Monday but is 3-for-8 against Curry.
Vierling is hitless in one at-bat versus Curry but is 12-for-33 (.364) with six doubles and a homer in his past eight games. He is 9-for-25 (.360) in six games against the Guardians this season.
Despite Cleveland’s current issues at the plate, star Jose Ramirez is 10-for-30 vs. Detroit this season.
–Field Level Media
